Editorial [Hot Topic: Analytical Methods Capable of Sensing Biological and Chemical Warfare Agents and their Degradation Products Based on Bio-Organic Chemistry (Guest Editor: Ji Hoon Lee Related Compounds) ]

Organic and toxic chemicals may cause death, temporary loss of performance or permanent injury in people and animals. If toxic chemicals, their derivatives and synthetic equivalents and toxins that are produced by living organisms are used for military purposes, all of those chemicals can be classified as chemical warfare agents. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the anthrax incident shortly after in the USA, most people and many governments around the world have shown increasing concern that terrorist organizations may use chemical warfare agents against military as well as civilian targets. Thus, currently, innumerable research papers related to chemical warfare agents have been published in various research fields including Organic Chemistry. The objective of the present issue (Title: “Analytical methods capable of sensing biological and chemical warfare agents and their degradation products based on bio-organic chemistry“) of the Current Organic Chemistry is to review recent research on chemical warfare agents from the viewpoint of Organic Chemistry. This issue contains four review articles written in four different research areas of Organic Chemistry. Zygmunt and his coauthors report the potentialities of solid phase micro-extraction capable of sampling chemical warfare agents in different matrices (e.g., air, water, urine, soil) in the first chapter of this issue. In the second chapter, Giordano and Collins describe a number of analytical methods for sensing biological and chemical warfare agents with a focus on those techniques which depend on synthetic organic chemistry. In the third chapter, Kassa and his coauthors introduce newly developed analogues of commonly used oximes (e.g., pralidoxime, obidoxime, trimedoxime, HI-6) and evaluate their potency to counteract the acute toxicity of nerve agents. Finally, in the fourth chapter, Talmage and his coauthors review decontamination technologies of chemical warfare agents (e.g., HD, VX, GA, GB, GD). Also, they discuss the toxicity of the intermediate and final degradation products with chemical decontamination pathways of each of the chemical warfare agents. I thank all the authors of this issue for their contribution and efforts. It is expected that this issue will be useful to readers working in Organic Chemistry as well as other research fields studying chemical warfare agents.