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Affixes

mercapto-

The chemical radical —SH.

English mercaptan, an abbreviation of modern Latin mercurium captans, capturing mercury.

The mercaptans (also called thiols; see thio‑) are a group of organic compounds containing this radical, analogous to the organic alcohols (such as methyl mercaptan or methanethiol, CH₃SH); frequently they have powerful smells. The drug mercaptopurine is used to prevent the growth of cancer cells, especially in leukaemia; mercaptobenzthiazole is a fungicide.

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