Dehydrative

Dehydrative is an adjective used to describe processes or reactions that involve the removal of water. In chemistry, it most often denotes dehydration reactions in which two substrates join and a molecule of water is released.

In organic synthesis and biochemistry, dehydration underlies synthesis of larger molecules from smaller units. Dehydration synthesis forms bonds such as peptide bonds between amino acids and glycosidic bonds between monosaccharides, with water as a byproduct. Dehydration can also drive elimination and condensation reactions that form alkenes, ethers, and esters by removing water and shifting equilibria toward products.

Beyond general chemistry, specialized strategies described as dehydrative methods aim to form bonds through water removal. Dehydrative couplings and dehydrative glycosylation are examples where a dehydrating agent or reaction condition promotes bond formation between an alcohol or other nucleophile and an electrophile.

In biology and medicine, dehydration refers to loss of body water; the related adjective dehydrative is rarely used, but in some contexts it can describe processes that remove water from tissues or cells. In materials science and environmental science, dehydration describes drying or moisture removal from materials as part of preparation, preservation, or analysis.

Overall, dehydrative processes emphasize water loss to enable bond formation or material drying, and they contrast with hydration processes in which water is incorporated into a system.