Question Video: Understanding the Importance of Quantitative Analysis in the Medical Field Chemistry

Video Transcript

Which of the following represents the importance of chemical quantitative analysis in the medical field? (A) Determining the functional group of the newly synthesized drugs. (B) Estimating the percentage of effective ingredients in drugs. (C) Identifying the harmful pollutants in food. (D) Knowing the nature of the functions of hormones and enzymes. Or (E) None of the above.

Quantitative analysis involves techniques that are used to determine the abundances of elements and compounds in chemical samples, the key word here being abundances. So, quantitative analysis isn’t used to determine what is in the sample, but of how much there is of something in the sample. If we go through the options from (A) to (E), we see that option (A) is determining the functional group of the newly synthesized drugs. There’s nothing in this statement that indicates finding the abundance of something; it only mentions determining what the functional group is. So, quantitative analysis is not involved. And option (A) cannot be the answer to this question.

Option (B) is estimating the percentage of effective ingredients in drugs. As this option involves estimating the percentage of ingredients, it does involve quantitative analysis, as finding the percentage of ingredients is essentially finding the percentage composition, which is a way of representing the abundance of something. Other examples of expressing the abundance are mass and concentration. So, option (B) may be the answer to this question.

Option (C) is identifying the harmful pollutants in food. This doesn’t involve finding the abundance of something, so it cannot be the answer to this question. Option (D) is knowing the nature of the functions of hormones and enzymes. Again, this doesn’t involve finding the abundance of something, so it cannot be the answer to this question. Option (E) is none of the above. We can only determine if this is correct or incorrect by first looking at option (B) again.

We have determined that option (B), estimating the percentage of effective ingredients in drugs, does involve quantitative analysis, but the question also asks if it represents the importance of the analysis in the medical field.

Drugs are related to the medical field, and it’s important that we know what percentage of a drug contains effective ingredients or active ingredients, as it’s important that people get the correct dose of something to treat them or cure them. If the percentage of effective ingredients in drugs is too low, then the treatment for a patient may be ineffective, whereas if it was too high, it could result in an overdose or other side effects.

So, option (B) estimating the percentage of effective ingredients in drugs does represent the importance of chemical quantitative analysis in the medical field. Thus, option (E), none of the above, is incorrect. And the answer to the question “Which of the following represents the importance of chemical quantitative analysis in the medical field?” is (B), estimating the percentage of effective ingredients in drugs.