Knowra Chloroform Chloroform Chloroform is a colorless, volatile organic compound with formula CHCl₃. It has been used as a solvent and was once widely used as a general anesthetic.
Trichloromethane : The systematic IUPAC name for chloroform, a methane molecule in which three hydrogen atoms are replaced by chlorine. This name describes chloroform’s structure directly: one carbon bonded to one hydrogen and three chlorine atoms.
Organic solvent : A carbon-based liquid used to dissolve, extract, or react with other substances. Chloroform’s ability to dissolve many organic compounds underlies its laboratory and industrial uses.
Samuel Guthrie : An American physician and chemist credited with independently preparing chloroform in 1831. Guthrie’s early preparation was one of several independent discoveries of chloroform.
Diethyl ether : A volatile organic compound formerly used as a general anesthetic and still used as a laboratory solvent. Ether competed with chloroform as an anesthetic and was generally less toxic, though highly flammable.
Hepatotoxicity : Liver injury caused by exposure to a chemical or other substance. Chloroform can damage the liver, limiting its safety as an anesthetic and solvent.
Chlorinated solvents : Organic solvents containing carbon–chlorine bonds, used in applications including cleaning, extraction, and chemical synthesis. Chloroform belongs to this family, whose members share useful solvent properties and environmental concerns.
Liquid–liquid extraction : A separation method that distributes compounds between two immiscible liquid phases. Chloroform has served as an organic phase for extracting compounds from aqueous mixtures.
Eugène Soubeiran : A French chemist who independently prepared chloroform in 1831. Soubeiran’s work places chloroform among compounds discovered independently by chemists in different countries.
Halothane : A halogenated inhalational anesthetic introduced in the twentieth century for general anesthesia. Halothane exemplifies later anesthetics that displaced chloroform in clinical practice.
Nephrotoxicity : Kidney injury caused by exposure to a chemical or other substance. Chloroform exposure can also harm the kidneys, especially at substantial doses.
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