Personal History of My Structure-Activity Correlation Study

Abstract

Personal history of my 30 year research on structure-activity correlation is introduced. The topological index, which was proposed to be defined and coined by myself in 1971, is now accepted as a common terminology in the areas of chemical application of the graph theory and quantitative structure-activity correlation (QSAR) study. This index Z is defined by using the non-adjacent number for the carbon atom skeleton of a saturated hydrocarbon molecule, and has been shown to be well correlated with the boiling point. The first paper of my research of this thema was published in Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan in 1977, after several controversial troubles because of the novelty of this work. The original idea came from the QSAR attempt in the author's school age on the correlation between the boiling point and structure of octane isomers. During the 30 years many scientists, abroad and demestic, have influenced and perturbed on the continuation of my research. Many anecdotes of these people are introduced.