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Indole

Indole is an organic compound with the formula C6H4CCNH3. Indole is classified as an aromatic heterocycle. It has a bicyclic structure, consisting of a six-membered benzene ring fused to a five-membered pyrrole ring. Indoles are derivatives of indole where one or more of the hydrogen atoms have been replaced by substituent groups. Indoles are widely distributed in nature, most notably as amino acid tryptophan and neurotransmitter serotonin.

Indole is a solid at room temperature. It occurs naturally in human feces and has an intense fecal odor. At very low concentrations, however, it has a flowery smell, and is a constituent of many perfumes. It also occurs in coal tar. It has been identified in cannabis. It is the main volatile compound in stinky tofu.

When indole is a substituent on a larger molecule, it is called an indolyl group by systematic nomenclature.

Indole undergoes electrophilic substitution, mainly at position 3 (see diagram in right margin). Substituted indoles are structural elements of (and for some compounds, the synthetic precursors for) the tryptophan-derived tryptamine alkaloids, which includes the neurotransmitter serotonin and the hormone melatonin, as well as the naturally occurring psychedelic drugs dimethyltryptamine and psilocybin. Other indolic compounds include the plant hormone auxin (indolyl-3-acetic acid, IAA), tryptophol, the anti-inflammatory drug indomethacin, and the betablocker pindolol.

The name indole is a portmanteau of the words indigo and oleum, since indole was first isolated by treatment of the indigo dye with oleum.

Indole chemistry began to develop with the study of the dye indigo. Indigo can be converted to isatin and then to oxindole. Then, in 1866, Adolf von Baeyer reduced oxindole to indole using zinc dust. In 1869, he proposed a formula for indole.

Certain indole derivatives were important dyestuffs until the end of the 19th century. In the 1930s, interest in indole intensified when it became known that the indole substituent is present in many important alkaloids, known as indole alkaloids (e.g., tryptophan and auxins), and it remains an active area of research today.

Indole is biosynthesized in the shikimate pathway via anthranilate. It is an intermediate in the biosynthesis of tryptophan, where it stays inside the tryptophan synthase molecule between the removal of 3-phospho-glyceraldehyde and the condensation with serine. When indole is needed in the cell, it is usually produced from tryptophan by tryptophanase.

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