Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry | Similarities & Differences

Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry are both separate branches of chemistry.

They are so divided because of basic differences and understanding involved.

Organic chemistry deals with organic compounds while the biochemistry deals with the chemistry inside the living beings.

So organic chemistry is more or less related to chemistry while biochemistry is related to biology.

But when we see the chemical substances involved in both of these subjects, it seems both of them are similar and not different.

Hence we will try to understand the similarities and differences in between both of these subjects.

Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry similarities

The chemical in both of these branches appear to have similar elements in their molecular structure. Also, the molecules show stereochemistry based effects. See more similarities in the table below.

Similarities	Organic chemistry	Biochemistry
Molecules studied	Carbohydrates, amino-acids, proteins, lipids	Carbohydrates, amino-acids, proteins, lipids
Isomers	Knowledge of isomers is studied	isomer information for molecules is studied
Common elements in molecules	Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen.	Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus etc.
Chemical reactions are dependent on factors like	Heat, pH, humidity,	Temperature, pH, Humidity.

Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry differences

Difference	Organic chemistry	Biochemistry
Subject covers	Structure, properties of compounds, isomerism, their reactions, synthesis and uses	Covers macro molecules, micro-molecules in the body, enzymes, their reactions
Elements involved here specifically	Alkylhalides like carbon tetra chloride, aromatics like benzene	Cofactors of enzymes having heavy metals, vitamins, enzymes
Application relate to	Food, daily chemicals, medicines	living body functions, clinical diagnosis
Examples of chemical reactions	SN1, SN2 reactions, rearrangement reactions, substitution reactions,	Photosynthesis, TCA cycle, Mevalonic acid pathway, Denova pathway etc.
Laboratory reactions include	Identification, synthesis, extractions	Extractions, identification only. No synthesis is involved
Pathways of reactions	Mostly smaller pathways.	Lengthy pathways.

Though the subjects related to each other, the branch of organic chemistry is studied as part of general science while biochemistry is studied for medicine, nursing, botany, zoology etc.