Molecules with silly names

Meet moronic acid. It's special.

Seriously.

Found in mistletoe and the Chinese sumac, this chemical could be one of the reasons those plants have long been associated with herbal medicine. Scientists studying the anti-viral properties of moronic acid have found it to be effective against HIV and herpes. The HIV work is particularly important, because moronic acid seems to target a different receptor on the virus than other drugs — which means it could be effective against HIV strains that have developed a resistance to existing medication. It'll still be a while before this research translates into a commercial product (if it does at all). But moronic acid is, at least, doing well enough to have made it into Phase II clinical trials — which means that smaller studies on humans have shown that it's generally safe. The Phase II trials, usually done with groups of 100 to 300 people, will help scientists understand whether it's as effective in the human body as it seems to be in the lab.

Looking for more molecules with silly names? Chemist Paul May has a whole list of these things — many of them hilariously immature. List includes arsole, cummingtonite, and fucitol.

Via the Daily Molecule and Deb Blum

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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MORE: chemistry • Funny • immature • medicine • Science

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Bob Webb

I think Adam Ant’s name may have been based on the word “adamant”. So the fact that Adamantane is listed on there seems sort of redundant :)
Jorpho

An oldie but a goodie. My favorite shall always be “fucitol”.
dragonfrog

Moronic acid has the added awesomeness of maybe having some medical applications, so drug companies may be faced with working “moronic” into a suave-sounding medication name…
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Oxymoron for pain relief?
Wreckrob8

Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, baked beans, Spam, Spam, Spam and Spam-ol.
Ms. Anne Thrope

Maybe it’s because the story follows the bedbug article, but looking at the molecular diagram, I thought of the kids game Cootie. So why not something thing named cootie…now you’ve got your cootie shot.
Richard

It must be that time of year – the image has a hidden “HO HO HO” in it!
digi_owl

Gotta have fun somehow.