Question

Estradiol is a female hormone with the following structure:

How many chiral carbon atoms are in estradiol?

Short answer

Five

Step-by-step solution

Chiral carbon atom

A chiral carbon atom is a carbon atom that has four different substituents attached.

In the estradiol, we can see that there are five chiral carbon atoms.

Determination of chiral center

In the figure below, the chiral carbon atoms are denoted by (R) or (S), depending on the stereochemistry of these chiral centers.

Hence, there are five chiral carbon atoms.