A search for pre-biotic molecules in hot cores

Aims. Our aim is to better understand the complex chemistry of organic molecules in the interstellar medium, leading to the formation of pre-biotic molecules such as amino acids. Methods. We have performed a search for the pre-biotic molecules amino acetonitrile (H2N CH2 CN) and vinyl acetylene (C2H3 CCH) towards four northern hot core sources using the Onsala 20 m telescope. Results. We have determined upper limits to the column density of amino acetonitrile (1-4*10^13 cm^-2) and vinyl acetylene (2-7*10^14 cm^-2) in the observed sources. In addition, from the absence of other lines within the observed frequency band, we have further constrained the column density of oxiranecarbonitrile (c-C3H3 NO) and amino-ethanol (NH2 CH2 CH2 OH) in these sources