Molecules with unusual names

There are a ton of funny names for chemical elements. They are sometimes in-jokes, sometimes references to celebrities, but a disturbing amount of them are butt-obsessed. There is actually a molecule called Arsole and it is the arsenic equivalent of pyrrole and it is named for exactly what you imagine it is.

Diabolic acids are actually a class of compounds where the chains can have different lengths and can contain unsaturations. They were named after the Greek diabollo, meaning to mislead, since they were particularly difficult to isolate.

Windowpane C₉H₁₂ gets its name from its resemblance to a set of windows, and is more accurately kown as fenestrane. Unfortunately it has never been synthesised. However, the version with a corner carbon missing C₈H₁₂ has been made, and goes by the name 'broken window'.

Fuki is the Japanese word for the butterbur flower, and Fukiic acid is a product from this plant, Petasites japonicus. Interestingly, further oxidation of this produces the wonderfully named Fukinolic acid.

Monosaccharides are the simplest form of carbohydrates. They are classified according to the number of carbon atoms in a monosaccharide. In particular, a nonose is a monosaccharide with nine carbon atoms.

It gets its 'commical' name since it's a constituent of the plant Commiphora pyracanthoides, one of the Myrrh trees.

This is a 'sexi' molecule - which means it has 6 sub-units of thiophene rings. Because of its conjugated system of double bonds, this organic molecule conducts electricity quite well. As a result, it is one of a number of similar molecules being studied for possible uses in organic polymer electronics.

Its name originated from being present in the flowers of the Indian cotton plant Gossypium herbaceum L. Apart from its contraceptive effects, gossypol has properties that might make it useful in treating a number of ailments, including cancer, HIV, malaria and some bacterial/viral illnessness. Related to this molecule are the equally strangely named gossypetin and gossypin.

Vomitoxin is a toxin that's produced by certain types of fungus that grow on wheat and barley. Its proper name is deoxynivalenol, but was given the trivial name vomitoxin because it caused vomiting in pigs that had eaten contaminated wheat.

Traumatic acid is a potent wound healing agent in plants ("wound hormone") that stimulates cell division near a trauma site to form a protective callus and to heal the damaged tissue. It may also act as a growth hormone, especially in inferior plants (e.g. algae).

Its name comes from its corresponding hydroxy acid, which was originally named morolic acid since it was isolated from the heartwood of the mora tree, mora excelsa. It is under development as an anti-HIV drug.

A quite ordinary molecule with a ridiculous name. Megaphone is a cytotoxic neolignan obtained from Aniba megaphylla, a flowering plant of Laurel family which gave the compound its name.

This is actually a close relative of adamantane. However because it had the unusual ethano bridge, and was therefore a variation from the standard types of structure found in the field of hydrocarbon cage rearrangements, it came to be known as bastardane - the "unwanted child".

This molecule actually gets its name from being both a constituent of the plant Teucrium fruiticans and a ketone.

This molecule has nothing to do with nuclear explosions. But it is in fact named after the black carpet beetle Attagenus megatoma (Fabricius), in which it is the principle component of the beetle's sex attractant.