Background
Buchner was born in Munich to a physician and Doctor Extraordinary of Forensic Medicine.
biochemist chemist university professor
Buchner was born in Munich to a physician and Doctor Extraordinary of Forensic Medicine.
Early years
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 Hermann Emil Fischer in Erlangen, Buchner was awarded a doctorate from the University of Munich in 1888. Research
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.
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.
Personal life
Buchner married Lotte Stahl in 1900. During World War I, Buchner served as a Major in a front-line field hospital at Focşani, Romania. He was wounded on August 3, 1917 and died of these wounds nine days later in Munich at age 57.
This dealt yet another blow to vitalism by showing that the presence of living yeast cells was not needed for fermentation.
German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.
