How to pronounce“retrosynthesis”in English

This retrosynthesis arrow tells us that our product is the more complex molecule on the left, and we’ll make it by forming a bond between the two simpler chemicals on the right.

We can use retrosynthesis to reverse-engineer it.

We can start retrosynthesis problems like synthesis problems, by numbering our carbon atoms.

Synthesis and retrosynthesis road maps on paper show key landmarks, but not the extra purification steps we do in the lab.

Here’s our first problem: notice the retrosynthesis arrow.

When we change a functional group in retrosynthesis, we call that a functional group interconversion.

We can just write FGI over the retrosynthesis arrow as a placeholder for this step, and come back after we've reverse-engineered the whole reaction.