Eduard Buchner (; 20 May 1860 – 13 August 1917) was a German chemist and zymologist, awarded the 1907 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on

fermentation Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food ...

Biography

Early years

Buchner was born in Munich to a physician and Doctor Extraordinary of Forensic Medicine. His older brother was Hans Ernst August Buchner. In 1884, he began studies of chemistry with Adolf von Baeyer and of botany with Carl Nägeli, at the Botanic Institute in Munich. After a period working with Otto Fischer (cousin of Emil Fischer) at the University of Erlangen, Buchner was awarded a doctorate from the University of Munich in 1888 under Theodor Curtius.

Academics

Buchner was appointed assistant lecturer in the organic laboratory of Adolf von Baeyer in 1889 at the University of Munich. In 1891, he was promoted to lecturer at the same university. In the autumn of 1893, Buchner moved to University of Kiel and appointed professor in 1895. In the next year he was appointed Professor Extraordinary for Analytical and Pharmaceutical Chemistry in the chemical laboratory of H. von Pechmann at the University of Tübingen. In October, 1898, he was appointed to the Chair of General Chemistry in the

Agricultural University of Berlin The Agricultural University of Berlin (german: Landwirtschaftliche Hochschule Berlin) was an agricultural university in Berlin, Germany. Established in 1881, it was closed in 1934, and incorporated as a faculty into the Humboldt University of Ber ...

, fully training his assistants by himself, and received his rehabilitation in 1900. In 1909, he was transferred to the University of Breslau (reorganised to be University of Wrocław in 1945), and in 1911, he moved to University of Würzburg.

The Nobel Prize

Buchner received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1907. The experiment for which Buchner won the Nobel Prize consisted of producing a cell-free extract of yeast cells and showing that this "press juice" could ferment sugar. This dealt yet another blow to

vitalism Vitalism is a belief that starts from the premise that "living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities because they contain some non-physical element or are governed by different principles than are inanimate things." Wher ...

by showing that the presence of living yeast cells was not needed for fermentation. The cell-free extract was produced by combining dry yeast cells, quartz and kieselguhr and then pulverizing the yeast cells with a pestle and mortar. This mixture would then become moist as the yeast cells' contents would come out of the cells. Once this step was done, the moist mixture would be put through a press and the resulting "press juice" had glucose,

fructose Fructose, or fruit sugar, is a Ketose, ketonic monosaccharide, simple sugar found in many plants, where it is often bonded to glucose to form the disaccharide sucrose. It is one of the three dietary monosaccharides, along with glucose and galacto ...

, or

maltose } Maltose ( or ), also known as maltobiose or malt sugar, is a disaccharide formed from two units of glucose joined with an α(1→4) bond. In the isomer isomaltose, the two glucose molecules are joined with an α(1→6) bond. Maltose is the two- ...

added and carbon dioxide was seen to evolve, sometimes for days. Microscopic investigation revealed no living yeast cells in the extract. Buchner hypothesized that yeast cells secrete proteins into their environment in order to ferment sugars, but it was later found that fermentation occurs inside the yeast cells.

Maria Manasseina Maria Mikhàilovna Manàsseina, also known as Marie de Manacéïne, was born in Korkunova in 1841 and died in Saint Petersburg on 17 March in 1903. She was buried at the Novodévitxi cemetery. Manàsseina was the daughter of Mikhaïl Korkunov, a hi ...

claimed to have discovered free-cell fermentation a generation earlier than Buchner, but Buchner and Rapp considered that she was subjectively convinced of the existence of an enzyme of fermentation, and that her experimental evidence was unconvincing.

Personal life

Buchner married Lotte Stahl in 1900. At the outbreak of the First World War he volunteered and rose to the rank of Major commanding a munition-transport unit on the western and then eastern front. In March 1916 he returned the University of Wurzburg. In April 1917 he volunteered again. On 11 August 1917, while stationed at Focșani, Romania, he was hit by a shell fragment and died two days later. He died in the Battle of Mărășești and is buried in the cemetery of German soldiers from Focșani, Romania. Though it is believed by some that the Büchner flask and the Büchner funnel are named for him, they are actually named for the industrial chemist Ernst Büchner.

Publications

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References

External links

* * including the Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1907 ''Cell-Free Fermentation'' * (English translation of Buchner's "Alkoholische Gährung ohne Hefezellen") {{DEFAULTSORT:Buchner, Eduard 1860 births 1917 deaths Scientists from Munich German biochemists Nobel laureates in Chemistry German Nobel laureates University of Erlangen-Nuremberg alumni Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni University of Kiel faculty University of Breslau faculty University of Tübingen faculty University of Würzburg faculty German military personnel killed in World War I German military doctors People from the Kingdom of Bavaria Military personnel of Bavaria German Army personnel of World War I