Designed to be used as a self-paced review, this text outlines the functional groups common to organic chemistry, reviewing the general topics of nomenclature, physical and chemical properties, and metabolism. The text provides background material for the formal pharmacy courses in medicinal chemistry, easing the transition from general organic chemistry courses required of all pre-pharmacy students. The Fourth Edition will include a workbook on CD-ROM as well as an index on general drug metabolism. Students who use this text are able to complete difficult tasks such as: drawing a chemical structure or official chemical name; predicting solubility of chemicals in liquids; predicting and showing, with chemical structures, the metabolism of organic functional groups; predicting and showing instabilities, with chemical structures.