Hydantoin Guide

Hydantoin, which is also known as glycolylurea, is a heterocyclic organic compound that can be thought of as a cyclic "double-condensation reaction" product of glycolic acid and urea. Its chemical structure, shown in the Table of Properties at right, is similar to that of imidazolidine except that the molecule of hydantoin has carbonyl groups in the number 2 and 4 positions in the ring. Imidazolidine is the hydrogen-saturated analogue of imidazole. Imidazole is a heterocyclic aromatic organic compound.

In a more general sense, hydantoins can refer to chemical compounds that have substituent groups bonded to a hydantoin ring skeletal structure. For example, phenytoin (mentioned below) has two phenyl groups substituted onto the number 5 carbon in a hydantoin molecule.[1]...