{{Short description|German chemist (1860–1917)}} {{for|the American scholar in education studies|Edward Franklin Buchner}} {{Infobox scientist | image = Eduard Buchner (Nobel 1907).jpg | caption = Buchner in 1907 | birth_date = {{birth date|1860|5|20|df=y}} | birth_place = Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria | death_date = {{death date and age|1917|8|13|1860|5|20|df=y}} | death_place = Focșani, Kingdom of Romania | alma_mater = Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | doctoral_advisor = Theodor Curtius | known_for = Cell-free fermentation, Buchner ring expansion, Büchner–Curtius–Schlotterbeck reaction, Enzymes, Zymase | field = Biochemistry | work_institution = Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München<br/>Kiel University <br/>Agricultural University of Berlin<br/> University of Tübingen<br/>University of Breslau<br/>University of Würzburg | prizes = {{ubl|Liebig Medal (1905)|Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1907)}} }}
'''Eduard Buchner''' ({{IPA|de|ˈeːduaʁt ˈbuːxnɐ|lang|De-Eduard Buchner.ogg}}; 20 May 1860 – 13 August 1917) was a German chemist and expert on fermentation (sometimes called a zymologist), awarded the 1907 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on fermentation.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Eduard Buchner – Biographical|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1907/buchner/biographical/|access-date=2020-10-22|website=NobelPrize.org|language=en-US}}</ref>
== Biography==
===Early years=== Buchner was born in Munich to a physician and Doctor Extraordinary of Forensic Medicine. His older brother was the bacteriologist Hans Ernst August Buchner.<ref name="Asimov">{{cite book | last=Asimov | first=I. | title=Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology: The Lives and Achievements of 1510 Great Scientists from Ancient Times to the Present Chronologically Arranged | publisher=Doubleday | year=1982 | isbn=978-0-385-17771-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=olxQAAAAMAAJ }}</ref> 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<ref>{{Cite web|title=Emil Fischer - Biographical|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1902/fischer/biographical/|access-date=2020-10-22|website=NobelPrize.org|language=en-US}}</ref>) at the University of Erlangen, Buchner was awarded a doctorate from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in 1888 under Theodor Curtius.<ref name=":0" />
===Academics=== Buchner was appointed assistant lecturer in the organic laboratory of Adolf von Baeyer in 1889 at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. In 1891, he was promoted to lecturer at the same university.<ref name=":0" />
In the autumn of 1893, Buchner moved to Kiel University 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.<ref name=":0" />
In October 1898, he was appointed to the Chair of General Chemistry in the Agricultural University of Berlin, fully training his assistants by himself, and received his habilitation in 1900.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Eduard Buchner - Universitäts-Archiv|url=https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/uniarchiv/personalities/gelehrte/eduard-buchner/|access-date=2020-10-27|website=www.uni-wuerzburg.de |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201102095115/https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/uniarchiv/personalities/gelehrte/eduard-buchner/ |archive-date=2 November 2020 }}</ref>
In 1909, he was transferred to the University of Breslau (reorganised to be University of Wrocław in 1945<ref>{{Cite web|title=History of the University of Wrocław|url=https://uni.wroc.pl/en/history-of-the-university-of-wroclaw/|access-date=2020-10-22|website=Uniwersytet Wrocławski|language=pl|archive-date=2021-06-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210610154715/https://uni.wroc.pl/en/history-of-the-university-of-wroclaw/|url-status=dead}}</ref>), and in 1911, he moved to University of Würzburg.<ref name=":0" />
==== The Nobel Prize ==== Buchner received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1907.<ref name=":0" /> 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 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, or maltose 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 claimed to have discovered free-cell fermentation a generation earlier than Buchner,<ref>{{Cite journal|author-link1=Athel Cornish-Bowden|author=Cornish-Bowden, Athel|journal=The Biochemist|volume=19|issue=2|pages=36–38|year=1999|url=http://bip.cnrs-mrs.fr/bip10/thebct.htm|title=The Origins of Enzymology|language=en|access-date=2017-10-18|archive-date=2014-08-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826160751/http://bip.cnrs-mrs.fr/bip10/thebct.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal | last1=Buchner | first1=Eduard | last2=Rapp | first2=Rudolf | title=Alkoholische Gährung ohne Hefezellen | journal=Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft | volume=30 | issue=3 | date=1897 | issn=0365-9496 | doi=10.1002/cber.18970300354 | pages=2668–2678 | url=https://chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cber.18970300354 | access-date=2026-05-19}}</ref>
===Personal life===
Buchner married Lotte Stahl in 1900. At the outbreak of the First World War, he volunteered in the Imperial German Army 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 Würzburg. In April 1917, he volunteered again. On 11 August 1917, while stationed at Focșani, Romania, he was hit by a shell fragment in the left thigh and died in a field hospital two days later.<ref name="Ukrow">{{cite thesis |last=Ukrow |first=Rolf |date=29 June 2004 |title=Nobelpreisträger Eduard Buchner (1860 – 1917) Ein Leben für die Chemie der Gärungen und - fast vergessen - für die organische Chemie |url=https://depositonce.tu-berlin.de/items/d3757b7d-e8a8-4acd-a1f9-84ab7232a2df |degree=Doktor der Philosophie |location=Berlin |publisher=Technischen Universität Berlin |access-date=19 May 2026}}</ref> He died in the Battle of Mărășești and is buried in the cemetery of German soldiers in Focșani.<ref name="Ukrow"/>
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.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Jensen, William|year=2006|title=The Origins of the Hirsch and Büchner Vacuum Filtration Funnels|url=http://search.jce.divched.org/JCEIndex/FMPro?-db=jceindex.fp5&-lay=wwwform&combo=Filtration%20Funnels&-find=&-format=detail.html&-skip=0&-max=1&-token.2=0&-token.3=10|url-status=dead|journal=Journal of Chemical Education|volume=83|issue=9|pages=1283|bibcode=2006JChEd..83.1283J|doi=10.1021/ed083p1283|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090829105632/http://search.jce.divched.org/JCEIndex/FMPro?-db=jceindex.fp5&-lay=wwwform&combo=Filtration%20Funnels&-find=&-format=detail.html&-skip=0&-max=1&-token.2=0&-token.3=10|archive-date=2009-08-29|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
==Publications== *{{cite journal | title = Alkoholische Gährung ohne Hefezellen (Vorläufige Mitteilung) | author = Eduard Buchner | journal = Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft | volume = 30 | pages = 117–124 | year = 1897 | url = http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k907462/f121.table | doi = 10.1002/cber.18970300121 }} *{{cite journal | title = Alkoholische Gährung ohne Hefezellen | author = Eduard Buchner, Rudolf Rapp | journal = Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft | volume = 32 | issue = 2| pages = 2086–2094 | year = 1899 | url = http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k90753b/f735.table | doi =10.1002/cber.189903202123 | url-access = subscription }} *{{cite journal | title = The background to Eduard Buchner's discovery of cell-free fermentation | author = Robert Kohler | journal = Journal of the History of Biology | volume = 4 | issue = 1 | pages = 35–61 | year = 1971 | doi = 10.1007/BF00356976 | pmid=11609437| s2cid = 46573308 }} *{{cite journal | title = The reception of Eduard Buchner's discovery of cell-free fermentation | author = Robert Kohler | journal = Journal of the History of Biology | volume = 5 | issue = 2 | pages = 327–353 | year = 1972 | doi = 10.1007/BF00346663 | pmid = 11610124| s2cid = 34944527 }}
==See also== *History of biochemistry
==References == {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Eduard Buchner}} * {{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1907 ''Cell-Free Fermentation'' * {{cite journal | author = Buchner, Eduard | title = Alcoholic Fermentation Without Yeast Cells | journal = Ber. Dtsch. Chem. Ges. | year = 1897 | volume = 30 | pages = 117–124 | url = http://bip.cnrs-mrs.fr/bip10/buchner0.htm | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060819030420/http://bip.cnrs-mrs.fr/bip10/buchner0.htm | archive-date = 2006-08-19 | doi = 10.1002/cber.18970300121 }} (English translation of Buchner's "Alkoholische Gährung ohne Hefezellen")
{{Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureates 1901-1925}} {{1907 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buchner, Eduard}} Category:1860 births Category:1917 deaths Category:Scientists from Munich Category:German biochemists Category:Nobel laureates in Chemistry Category:German Nobel laureates Category:University of Erlangen–Nuremberg alumni Category:LMU Munich alumni Category:Academic staff of the University of Kiel Category:Academic staff of the University of Breslau Category:Academic staff of the University of Tübingen Category:Academic staff of the University of Würzburg Category:German military personnel killed in World War I Category:German military doctors Category:Scientists from the Kingdom of Bavaria Category:Military personnel of Bavaria Category:German Army personnel of World War I