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Anselme Payen

 

 
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Anselme Payen
 
 
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Anselme Payen (January 6, 1795 - May 12, 1871) was a French
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 chemist
Chemist

A chemist is a scientist trained in the science of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density, acidity, size and shape....
. He was born in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
, where his father started to give him scientific lessons at the age of 13. He studied then partly at the École Polytechnique
École Polytechnique

The ?cole Polytechnique , often referred to by the nickname X, is the foremost France grande ?cole of engineering . Founded in 1794 and initially located in the Quartier Latin in central Paris, it was moved to Palaiseau in 1976....
 with the best chemists. At the age of 20 he became manager of the family borax
Borax

Borax, also known as sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, is an important boron compound, a mineral, and a salt of boric acid....
-refining factory, where he developed a process for synthesizing borax from soda
Sodium

Sodium is an element which has the symbol Na , atomic number 11, atomic mass 23 amu , and a common oxidation number +1. Sodium is a soft, silvery white, highly reactive element and is a member of the alkali metals within "group 1" ....
 and boric acid
Boric acid

Boric acid, also called boracic acid or orthoboric acid or Acidum Boricum, is a weak acid often used as an antiseptic, insecticide, flame retardant, in nuclear power plants to control the fission rate of uranium, and as a precursor of other chemical compounds....
. He also invented new processes for refining sugar
Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline substances, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose. Human taste buds interpret its flavor as sweet. Sugar as a basic food carbohydrate primarily comes from sugar cane and from sugar beet, but also appears in fruit, honey, sorghum, sugar maple , and in many other sources....
, a decolorimeter, a way to refine starch
Starch

File:Amylose2.svgFile:Amylopektin Sessel.svgStarch or amylum is a polysaccharide carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds....
 and alcohol
Alcohol

In chemistry, an alcohol is any organic compound in which a hydroxyl Functional group is bound to a carbon atom of an alkyl or substituted alkyl group....
 from potato
Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial plant Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family. The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well....
es, and a method for determination of nitrogen
Nitrogen

Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N and atomic number 7 and atomic mass 14.00674?. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78% by volume of Earth's atmosphere....
.

Payen became especially famous for the discovery of the first enzyme
Enzyme

Enzymes are biomolecules that catalysis chemical reactions. Almost all enzymes are proteins. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called Substrate , and the enzyme converts them into different molecules, the products....
, diastase
Diastase

A diastase is any one of a group of enzymes which catalysis the breakdown of starch into maltose. It was the first type of enzyme discovered, in 1833, by Anselme Payen, who found it in malt solution....
, in 1833; also for his works on cellulose
Cellulose

File:Cellulose Sessel.svgCellulose is an organic compound with the chemical formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to over ten thousand ? linked D-glucose units....
.

In 1835, he gave up with business and became professor at École Centrale Paris
École Centrale Paris

?cole Centrale Paris is a renowned French university-level institution in the field of engineering. It is also known by its original name ?cole centrale des arts et manufactures, or ECP....
.






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Anselme Payen (January 6, 1795 - May 12, 1871) was a French
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 chemist
Chemist

A chemist is a scientist trained in the science of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density, acidity, size and shape....
. He was born in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
, where his father started to give him scientific lessons at the age of 13. He studied then partly at the École Polytechnique
École Polytechnique

The ?cole Polytechnique , often referred to by the nickname X, is the foremost France grande ?cole of engineering . Founded in 1794 and initially located in the Quartier Latin in central Paris, it was moved to Palaiseau in 1976....
 with the best chemists. At the age of 20 he became manager of the family borax
Borax

Borax, also known as sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, is an important boron compound, a mineral, and a salt of boric acid....
-refining factory, where he developed a process for synthesizing borax from soda
Sodium

Sodium is an element which has the symbol Na , atomic number 11, atomic mass 23 amu , and a common oxidation number +1. Sodium is a soft, silvery white, highly reactive element and is a member of the alkali metals within "group 1" ....
 and boric acid
Boric acid

Boric acid, also called boracic acid or orthoboric acid or Acidum Boricum, is a weak acid often used as an antiseptic, insecticide, flame retardant, in nuclear power plants to control the fission rate of uranium, and as a precursor of other chemical compounds....
. He also invented new processes for refining sugar
Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline substances, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose. Human taste buds interpret its flavor as sweet. Sugar as a basic food carbohydrate primarily comes from sugar cane and from sugar beet, but also appears in fruit, honey, sorghum, sugar maple , and in many other sources....
, a decolorimeter, a way to refine starch
Starch

File:Amylose2.svgFile:Amylopektin Sessel.svgStarch or amylum is a polysaccharide carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds....
 and alcohol
Alcohol

In chemistry, an alcohol is any organic compound in which a hydroxyl Functional group is bound to a carbon atom of an alkyl or substituted alkyl group....
 from potato
Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial plant Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family. The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well....
es, and a method for determination of nitrogen
Nitrogen

Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N and atomic number 7 and atomic mass 14.00674?. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78% by volume of Earth's atmosphere....
.

Payen became especially famous for the discovery of the first enzyme
Enzyme

Enzymes are biomolecules that catalysis chemical reactions. Almost all enzymes are proteins. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called Substrate , and the enzyme converts them into different molecules, the products....
, diastase
Diastase

A diastase is any one of a group of enzymes which catalysis the breakdown of starch into maltose. It was the first type of enzyme discovered, in 1833, by Anselme Payen, who found it in malt solution....
, in 1833; also for his works on cellulose
Cellulose

File:Cellulose Sessel.svgCellulose is an organic compound with the chemical formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to over ten thousand ? linked D-glucose units....
.

In 1835, he gave up with business and became professor at École Centrale Paris
École Centrale Paris

?cole Centrale Paris is a renowned French university-level institution in the field of engineering. It is also known by its original name ?cole centrale des arts et manufactures, or ECP....
. He was later elected professor at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers
Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers

The Conservatoire National des Arts et M?tiers , or National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts, is a doctoral-granting higher education establishment operated by the France government dedicated to providing education and conducting research for the promotion of science and industry....
. He died in 1871.

The American Chemical Society
American Chemical Society

The American Chemical Society is a learned society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has over 160,000 members at all degree-levels and in all fields of chemistry, chemical engineering and related fields....
's Cellulose and Renewable Materials Division has established an annual award in his honor, the Anselme Payen Award
Anselme Payen Award

The Anselme Payen Award is an annual prize presented by the American Chemical Society's Cellulose and RenewableMaterials Division to honor "outstanding professional contributions to the science and chemical technology of cellulose and its allied products"....
.