This textbook was written for an audience of advanced undergraduates and graduate students who want a deeper understanding of the chemical reactions that take place in living organisms. The authors assume readers have a background in organic chemistry at the level of the typical two-semester college course. Although enzymes are crucial to biological reactions, the authors’ focus always remains on the reactivity patterns of the substrate molecules and on the organic, arrow-pushing details of the individual reactions.

All mechanisms have been updated in this second edition, and several hundred references to recent literature are given for those students who want more detail.