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FOREWORD
For a pharmacist to be a successful member of the health care team, a foundation of medicinal
chemistry knowledge is one of the essential elements to developing an adequate knowledge
base, and critical thinking and problem solving skills. This e-book provides the fundamental
principles of medicinal chemistry including the functional groups occurring in medicinal
agents, the acidity and basicity of drugs, and their water and lipid solubility as well as drug-
receptor interactions. The physicochemical principles, isosterism and spatial characteristics of
drugs are prerequisites to understanding drug pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics,
biopharmaceutics, formulations and pharmacotherapeutics. Another important aspect crucial
to comprehending the mechanism of drug action is the knowledge of important biosynthetic
pathways frequently encountered in the pharmaceutical interventions. A comprehensive
approach has been taken to explaining the phases of drug metabolism, modifications of drug
chemical structures and their effects on drug pharmacokinetics, safety and efficacy.
These authors have carefully integrated the key aspect of Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum in
the design and organization of the contents in this eBook series; its novel and innovative
layout includes 4 volumes in three distinct areas - the fundamental concepts, detailed structure
activity relationships of different drug classes, and recent developments in the area of
medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. It offers students the opportunity to learn the
principles of drug action in a logical stepwise manner. The case studies, student’s self-study
guide and self-assessments at the end of each chapter are unique features of this book that
would be beneficial to both students, faculty members and clinicians. Although there are
several medicinal chemistry textbooks available in the market, to my understanding, this is
the first textbook of its kind focusing on the integration of medicinal chemistry into the
foundations for a pharmacy curriculum.
As a pharmacy educator and pharmaceutical scientist, I am pleased to testify and endorse this
e-book to the pharmacy educators, and learners as a novel and innovative addition to the
available literature. One of the key advantages of this e-book is that it focuses its approach on
a student-friendly manner that incorporates the appropriate illustrative diagrams and study
guides as well as self-assessments to enable students to enhance their skills as self-learners.
The increasing emphasis on clinical and management focuses in our pharmacy curriculum
makes it challenging for students with limited time available to learn and internalize concepts
in the area of medicinal chemistry. This e-book series brings those memories of my early
years as a pharmacy student and the evolution of the pharmacy education, and gives me the
confidence that it will pave the way of future medicinal chemistry education for pharmacists
and other health professionals.

Gayle Brazeau
Dean School of Pharmacy
Marshall University
Huntington, WV
USA