CLASSIFICATION OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS

Since a large number of organic compounds exist, their classification based on their structure became necessary.
Organic compounds are broadly classified as follows

Aliphatic compounds: are straight chain or branched chain compounds
                                  Example: CH₃CH₂CH₂CH₂CH₃
Cyclic compounds: These are compounds in which carbon atoms are joined to form ring or cycle.
These can be homocyclic in which the ring or cycle is made of carbon atoms only and heterocyclic when the ring incorporate other atoms than carbon like N, O, P, S etc.

Aromatic compounds: These are special types of compounds, they include benzene and related compounds (benzenoids). Like alicyclic compounds, aromatic compounds may contain an hetero atom and called heterocyclic aromatic compounds.

Non-benzenoic compounds include tropone.