Edgar Charles Bate-Smith (1900-1989Practical Polyphenolics,

Edwin Haslam Edwin Haslam (1932 – 3 October 2013)Edwin HAS ...

phytochemist Phytochemistry is the study of phytochemicals, which are chemicals derived from plants. Phytochemists strive to describe the structures of the large number of secondary metabolites found in plants, the functions of these compounds in human and ...

specialising in food chemistry. He worked in the Low Temperature Research Station in Cambridge where his main fields of research were

meat Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...

and

polyphenol Polyphenols () are a large family of naturally occurring organic compounds characterized by multiples of phenol units. They are abundant in plants and structurally diverse. Polyphenols include flavonoids, tannic acid, and ellagitannin, some of ...

s. The discovery in 1943 by Martin and Synge of paper chromatography provided for the first time the means of surveying the phenolic constituents of plants and for their separation and identification. There was an explosion of activity in this field after 1945, none more so than that of Bate-Smith and Tony Swain. In 1951, Bate-Smith developed and first described a coloration method to detect the presence of condensed tannins (also called proanthocyanidins) in plant materials. This reaction is based on heating in acidic conditions and gives rise to anthocyanidin pigments. Bate-smith recommended the use of the

Forestal Forestal is a solvent used in chromatography, composed of acetic acid, water, and hydrochloric acid Hydrochloric acid, also known as muriatic acid, is an aqueous solution of hydrogen chloride. It is a colorless solution with a distinctive ...

solvent for the isolation of

leuco-anthocyanin Leucoanthocyanidin (flavan-3,4-diols) are colorless chemical compounds related to anthocyanidins and anthocyanins. Leucoanthocyanins can be found in '' Anadenanthera peregrina'' and in several species of '' Nepenthes'' including '' N. burbidg ...

s in 1954. In 1973, he suggested an assay based on the precipitation of

hemoglobin Hemoglobin (haemoglobin BrE) (from the Greek word αἷμα, ''haîma'' 'blood' + Latin ''globus'' 'ball, sphere' + ''-in'') (), abbreviated Hb or Hgb, is the iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein present in red blood cells (erythrocyte ...

tannin Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids. The term ''tannin'' (from Anglo-Norman ''tanner'', ...

s. Bate-Smith has been awarded the food technology Bor S. Luh International Award in 1964. He became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1963.

References

English chemists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire 1900 births 1989 deaths {{UK-chemist-stub