Information theory description of synthetic strategies. A new similarity index

Abstract

Abstract Information theory was used to analyse and compare organic syntheses leading to the targets, daucene, longifolene and estrone. This paper expands the work of Bertz, who analysed syntheses from the complexity of molecular structures. Herein, a more complete model involving similarity was evaluated. We published previously a study in this direction limited to a skeletal level. In order to improve on this initial approach, we attempted to analyse some syntheses not only limited to the skeleton by including different definitions of similarity. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.