Is 2 4-dichlorobenzyl alcohol an alcohol?

Answer 1

No!

When scientists use the word alcohol, it refers to the chemical hydroxyl functional group. This means that the compound has a hydrogen atom attached to an oxygen atom which is then connected to a chain of carbon atoms. Nearly everything you eat is an alcohol in this sense except pure water. All saccharides (energy bearing molecules essential for human life) are sugar alcohols. The main sugar used for energy in humans is glucose, which has 5 alcohol groups on it compared to the single alcohol group on dichlorobenzyl alcohol. Glucose not named an alcohol because scientists in the past devised an arbitrary naming scheme that puts aldehyde groups above alcohols in naming and because simply saying glucose is easier than saying its full official name: (2R,3S,4R,5R)-2,3,4,5,6-pentahydroxyhexanal.

If you eat any meat, you can be sure it has cholesterol in it. Guess what? Cholesterol has an alcohol too. Your body will make cholesterol even if you consume 0g of it in your diet. The vital amino acids serine, threonine and tyrosine all have alcohol (hydroxyl) groups. Most vitamins have a hydroxyl group.

You cannot live without these compunds. What does this mean? It means absolutely nothing, because whoever wrote the kuran had absolutely no knowledge of any of this.

The alcohol referred to in that text refers to ethanol, which also has a hydroxyl group on it. Ethanol is special because of a specific reaction with the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase which produces metabolic byproducts causing the symtoms of common alcohol ingestion from Alcoholic Beverages. If you believe the Kuran, unless you want to kill yourself from starvation, you should only avoid ethanol alcohol - the one found in wine and beer etc.

So use your minds a bit. Im not a believer in god, but I have read the Kuran and I know it says seek true knowledge. Do your faith a little favour and dont accept ridiculous propositions before actually thinking about it. Always look for new information and use logic to guide you. Im sure its what your prophet or god wanted to tell you. Dont indulge in ignorance.

As for dichlorobenzyl alcohol, it is named an alcohol on the package because it is easier to read and understand than 2,4-dichlorophenylmethanol, which is its official scientific name under IUPAC.

The only commonality between this molecule and the conventional drinking alcohol is that they both have a specific arrangement of two atoms on a molecule. Their properties are entirely different aside from both oxygens having a weak propensity to donate the hydrogen atom to water in an aqueous medium.

- a scientist

Answer 2

Yes, but not the kind you can drink. The ONLY alcohol that is safe to drink is ethyl alcohol (ethanol).