Krokodilin

Krokodilin is a fictitious chemical compound used in educational contexts to illustrate principles of drug design, pharmacology, and regulatory assessment. It does not correspond to a real, approved medication or a confirmed natural product. The name is commonly employed in textbooks, problem sets, and online tutorials as a neutral placeholder for a small organic molecule.

In the teaching literature, krokodilin is described with generic, non-specific properties. It is often depicted as having a molecular weight around 320 g/mol, a heterocyclic core, and a pair of functional groups that permit standard medicinal-chemistry transformations. Because the structure is not standardized for real-world use, instructors may vary substituents to demonstrate different concepts such as structure–activity relationships or synthetic accessibility.

Synthesis and handling are presented in simplified schemes. In illustrative problems, krokodilin is prepared from readily available precursors through two to three steps, highlighting common reactions such as nucleophilic substitution or acylation. These depictions emphasize pedagogical points rather than laboratory feasibility and deliberately omit practical hazards and optimization details.

Pharmacology within hypothetical scenarios assigns krokodilin as a moderate, non-selective receptor agonist with limited oral bioavailability. The simulated effects might include analgesia or mild sedation, accompanied by generic safety considerations. The focus is on illustrating how pharmacokinetics, dosing, and adverse-event evaluation influence decision-making in drug development.

Regulatory status for krokodilin is non-existent in reality; it serves as a teaching aid to explore how real compounds are evaluated, approved, or withdrawn. See also examples of fictional drugs in education and pharmacology teaching resources.