polyvalent alcohols

Name for polyalcohols; see under alcohol.

The origin of the name comes from Arabic and is derived from "guhlu" (powdered galena for colouring the eyelids and eyelashes). The Arabs called this "kuhul" and it had the meaning of "most beautiful and finest". The term was then also used for liquids that were regarded as the essence or "spirit" of a substance. From this, "Al-kuhul-vini" is derived, the finest of wine (spirit of wine). The art of producing alcohol by distillation was probably invented by the Arabs towards the end of the 1st millennium for medicinal and cosmetic purposes. The natural scientist Theophrastus B. Paracelsus (1493-1541) was the first to use the term "spiritus vini" (spirit of wine) for the result of a distillation and eventually the terms spirit of wine and alcohol acquired identical meanings. Alcool" was first mentioned in writing in Germany in 1597.

Formel für Ethanol, Propanol 1,2 und Propanol 1,3

Types of alcohol

Alcohols are chemical compounds in which one or more hydroxyl groups (hydrogen and oxygen) are bonded directly to the carbon. If the molecule contains only one hydroxyl group, it is referred to as a monohydric or lower alcohol; if it contains more, it is referred to as a...

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polyvalent alcohols

Alcohol

Types of alcohol

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