Thiamine (or thiamin) is probably better known as vitamin B1 (Figure 1). You may have had some in your breakfast today, as vitamin B1 is added to cereals to help ensure that we get enough in our diet. Thiamine is vital in the metabolism of carbohydrates to give us energy.
Thymine (T, Figure 2) is a nucleotide base found in DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). The sequence of the bases in the sense strand of DNA forms the genetic code, with each gene coding for a specific protein. Thymine in one strand of a DNA molecule is exactly the right shape and size to hydrogen bond to an adenine base (A) on the opposite DNA strand. It cannot hydrogen bond to either of the other nucleotide bases in DNA: cytosine (C) and guanine (G) (Chemistry Review Vol. 32, No. 4, p. 34).
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