alcoholderived

Alcoholderived is an informal descriptor used in chemistry and related disciplines to identify chemical entities that originate from or incorporate alcohol-derived moieties. It is not a formal IUPAC term, but appears in various texts to flag compounds that contain fragments derived from alcohols or transformations of hydroxyl groups.

The sense of alcoholderived covers a range of transformations. Alcohols can be converted into ethers, esters, or carbonyl compounds; their alkyl fragments can be retained in larger molecules; hydroxy groups may be transformed into leaving groups or into polyfunctional anchors. Thus "alcoholderived" can refer to the origin of a fragment or to functional groups originated from alcohol chemistry.

Examples include polyether segments in polymers derived from ethylene glycol, esters formed from carboxylic acids and alcohols, or alkyl chains in alkyl ethers produced by alcohol dehydration. In natural products and pharmaceuticals, moieties such as primary or secondary alcohol-derived side chains and their oxidation products may be described as alcoholderived.

Because it is informal, the term's precise scope varies by author. When clarity is required, it is preferred to specify the exact transformation or the alcohol used as the starting material, e.g., "alcohol-derived alkyl chain" or "glycerol-derived moiety."