Organic chemistry

Organic chemistry is the branch of chemistry that studies organic compounds, i.e. carbon compounds (with the exception of a few simple compounds that traditionally come under inorganic chemistry). These compounds may be natural or synthetic.One characteristic of carbon is the ability of its atoms to link to each other, by covalent bonds, in an almost indefinite way, to form a wide variety of carbon chains. Organic compounds are thus made up of molecules characterized by carbon chains specific to "organic" molecules.The characteristic aptitude of carbon means that "a few other elements are all that's needed to form millions of different molecules with it, with molecular masses of up to 100,000 or even 1,000,000, known as macromolecules".Organic molecules frequently contain hydrogen atoms and often oxygen or nitrogen atoms, and synthetic molecules are often derived from petroleum.