<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of biochemistry</span>

History of biochemistry

<p>The <b>history of biochemistry</b> can be said to have started with the ancient Greeks who were interested in the composition and processes of life, although <a href="/en/Biochemistry" title="Biochemistry" class="wl">biochemistry</a> as a specific scientific discipline has its beginning around the early 19th century.<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-history_of_science_1-0"><a href="#cite_note-history_of_science-1" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[1]</span></a></span>  Some argued that the beginning of biochemistry may have been the discovery of the first <a href="/en/Enzyme" title="Enzyme" class="wl">enzyme</a>, <a href="/en/Diastase" title="Diastase" class="wl">diastase</a> (today called <a href="/en/Amylase" title="Amylase" class="wl">amylase</a>), in 1833 by <a href="/en/Anselme_Payen" title="Anselme Payen" class="wl">Anselme Payen</a>,<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-2"><a href="#cite_note-2" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 2;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[2]</span></a></span> while others considered <a href="/en/Eduard_Buchner" title="Eduard Buchner" class="wl">Eduard Buchner</a>'s first demonstration of a complex biochemical process <a href="/en/Ethanol_fermentation" title="Ethanol fermentation" class="wl">alcoholic fermentation</a> in cell-free extracts to be the birth of biochemistry.<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-3"><a href="#cite_note-3" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 3;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[3]</span></a></span><span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-4"><a href="#cite_note-4" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 4;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[4]</span></a></span>  Some might also point to the influential work of <a href="/en/Justus_von_Liebig" title="Justus von Liebig" class="wl">Justus von Liebig</a> from 1842, <i>Animal chemistry, or, Organic chemistry in its applications to physiology and pathology</i>, which presented a chemical theory of metabolism,<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-history_of_science_1-1"><a href="#cite_note-history_of_science-1" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[1]</span></a></span> or even earlier to the 18th century studies on fermentation and respiration by <a href="/en/Antoine_Lavoisier" title="Antoine Lavoisier" class="wl">Antoine Lavoisier</a>.<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-5"><a href="#cite_note-5" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 5;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[5]</span></a></span><span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-6"><a href="#cite_note-6" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 6;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[6]</span></a></span></p>

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padding:0.2em; font-size:175%; font-weight:bold;"><a href="/en/Biochemistry" title="Biochemistry" class="wl">Biochemistry</a></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-image"><span><a href="/en/File:Myoglobin.png" class="mw-file-description image media-thumb" data-hash="File:Myoglobin.png"><img loading="lazy" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Myoglobin.png/220px-Myoglobin.png" decoding="async" data-file-width="1159" data-file-height="1173" data-file-type="bitmap" height="223" width="220" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Myoglobin.png/330px-Myoglobin.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Myoglobin.png/440px-Myoglobin.png 2x" alt="Myoglobin.png"></a></span><div class="sidebar-caption" style="padding:0 0 0.8em;"><b>Chemistry of life</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-above notheme" style="padding:0.15em 0.15em 0.25em; display:block; background-color: transparent; border-color: #A2B8BF">
<div class="hlist ">
<ul><li><a href="/en/Index_of_biochemistry_articles" title="Index of biochemistry articles" class="wl">Index</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Outline_of_biochemistry" title="Outline of biochemistry" class="wl">Outline</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/History_of_biochemistry" title="History of biochemistry" class="wl">History</a></li></ul>
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<div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="text-align:center;font-size:100%;font-weight:bold;">Key components</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist">
<ul><li><a href="/en/Biomolecule" title="Biomolecule" class="wl">Biomolecules</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Enzyme" title="Enzyme" class="wl">Enzymes</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Gene_expression" title="Gene expression" class="wl">Gene expression</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Metabolism" title="Metabolism" class="wl">Metabolism</a></li></ul></div></div></td>
</tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding:0.2em; border-bottom:1px solid #A2B8BF">
<div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="text-align:center;font-size:100%;font-weight:bold;">List of biochemists</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist">
<ul><li><a href="/en/Biochemist" title="Biochemist" class="wl">Biochemist</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/List_of_biochemists" title="List of biochemists" class="wl">List of biochemists</a></li></ul></div></div></td>
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<div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="text-align:center;font-size:100%;font-weight:bold;">Glossaries</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist">
<ul><li><a href="/en/Glossary_of_biology" title="Glossary of biology" class="wl">Glossary of biology</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Glossary_of_chemistry_terms" title="Glossary of chemistry terms" class="wl">Glossary of chemistry</a></li></ul></div></div></td>
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<p>The term <i><a href="/en/Biochemistry" title="Biochemistry" class="wl">biochemistry</a></i> itself is derived from the combining form <i>bio-</i>, meaning 'life', and <i><a href="/en/Chemistry" title="Chemistry" class="wl">chemistry</a></i>. The word is first recorded in English in 1848,<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-7"><a href="#cite_note-7" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 7;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[7]</span></a></span> while in 1877, <a href="/en/Felix_Hoppe-Seyler" title="Felix Hoppe-Seyler" class="wl">Felix Hoppe-Seyler</a> used the term (<span><i lang="de">Biochemie</i></span> in German) in the foreword to the first issue of <i><a href="/en/Zeitschrift_für_Physiologische_Chemie" title="Zeitschrift für Physiologische Chemie" class="mw-redirect wl">Zeitschrift für Physiologische Chemie</a></i> (Journal of Physiological Chemistry) as a synonym for <a href="/en/Physiological_chemistry" title="Physiological chemistry" class="mw-redirect wl">physiological chemistry</a> and argued for the setting up of institutes dedicate to its studies.<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-8"><a href="#cite_note-8" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 8;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[8]</span></a></span><span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-9"><a href="#cite_note-9" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 9;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[9]</span></a></span> Nevertheless, several sources cite German <a href="/en/Chemist" title="Chemist" class="wl">chemist</a> <a href="/en/Carl_Neuberg" title="Carl Neuberg" class="wl">Carl Neuberg</a> as having coined the term for the new discipline in 1903,<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-10"><a href="#cite_note-10" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 10;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[10]</span></a></span><span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-11"><a href="#cite_note-11" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 11;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[11]</span></a></span> and some credit it to <a href="/en/Franz_Hofmeister" title="Franz Hofmeister" class="wl">Franz Hofmeister</a>.<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-12"><a href="#cite_note-12" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 12;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[12]</span></a></span></p>

<p>The subject of study in biochemistry is the chemical processes in living organisms, and its history involves the discovery and understanding of the complex components of life and the elucidation of pathways of biochemical processes.  Much of biochemistry deals with the structures and functions of cellular components such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids and other biomolecules; their metabolic pathways and flow of chemical energy through metabolism; how biological molecules give rise to the processes that occur within living cells; it also focuses on the biochemical processes involved in the control of information flow through biochemical signalling, and how they relate to the functioning of whole organisms. Over the last 40 years<sup class="noprint Inline-Template " style="white-space:nowrap;">[<i><a href="/en/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Dates_and_numbers#Chronological_items" title="Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers" class="wl"><span>as of?</span></a></i>]</sup> the field has had success in explaining living processes such that now almost all areas of the life sciences from botany to medicine are engaged in biochemical research.</p>

<p>Among the vast number of different biomolecules, many are complex and large molecules (called polymers), which are composed of similar repeating subunits (called monomers). Each class of polymeric biomolecule has a different set of subunit types. For example, a protein is a polymer whose subunits are selected from a set of twenty or more amino acids, carbohydrates are formed from sugars known as monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides, lipids are formed from fatty acids and glycerols, and nucleic acids are formed from nucleotides. Biochemistry studies the chemical properties of important biological molecules, like proteins, and in particular the chemistry of enzyme-catalyzed reactions. The biochemistry of cell metabolism and the endocrine system has been extensively described. Other areas of biochemistry include the <a href="/en/Genetic_code" title="Genetic code" class="wl">genetic code</a> (DNA, RNA), <a href="/en/Protein_synthesis" title="Protein synthesis" class="mw-redirect wl">protein synthesis</a>, <a href="/en/Cell_membrane_transport" title="Cell membrane transport" class="mw-redirect wl">cell membrane transport</a>, and <a href="/en/Signal_transduction" title="Signal transduction" class="wl">signal transduction</a>.</p>



The history of biochemistry can be said to have started with the ancient Greeks who were interested in the composition and processes of life, although biochemistry as a specific scientific discipline has its beginning around the early 19th century. The term biochemistry itself is derived from the combining form bio-, meaning 'life', and chemistry. The word is first recorded in English in 1848, 