Hermann Schildknecht

Hermann Schildknecht (* 2. August 1922 in Fuerth , † 1. July 1996 in Heidelberg ) was a German natural products - chemists .

Life

He studied chemistry at the University of Erlangen , received his doctorate in 1953 under Emil Buchta and qualified as a professor in 1959 in chemistry. In 1963 he went to the Organic Chemistry Institute of Heidelberg University as associate professor and successor to Otto Theodor Schmidt , and became its director in 1964. In 1989 he retired.

Schildknecht's main area of ​​interest was the defense behavior of various bombardier beetle species . He found that before the explosion they first mixed two very reactive chemicals in a collection bubble, hydroquinone (C ₆ H ₆ O ₂ ) and hydrogen peroxide (H ₂ O ₂ ). When an enemy approaches, the bombardier beetles inject this mixture into a reaction chamber and add the enzymes catalase and peroxidase at exactly the right moment to accelerate the reaction. This catalyst converts the hydroquinone to quinone (C ₆ H ₄ O ₂ ) and the hydrogen peroxide to water (H ₂ O) and oxygen (O ₂ ). During this chemical reaction, heat is released and high pressure is also created. Then a caustic gas mixture at around 100 ° C shoots at the attacker with a bang from two glands on the anus. The overall equation for this reaction is:

${\displaystyle \mathrm {2\ C_{6}H_{6}O_{2}+4\ H_{2}O_{2}\longrightarrow 2\ C_{6}H_{4}O_{2}+6\ H_{2}O+O_{2}} }$

Honors and memberships

Hermann Schildknecht received the Richard Kuhn Medal in Heidelberg in 1974 . He had been a member of the Leopoldina since 1972 and of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences since 1976 .

Fonts (selection)

• Hormones of the photodynamics of more highly organized plants. Berlin 1986.
• Turgorins, hormones of the endogenous daily rhythm of highly organized plants - detection, isolation, structure elucidation, synthesis and effect. In: Angewandte Chemie. 95, 1983, pp. 689-705, doi : 10.1002 / anie.19830950905 .
• Irritants and antibodies of higher plants - a chemical herbarium. In: Angewandte Chemie. 93, 1981, pp. 164-183, doi : 10.1002 / anie.19810930207 .
• About the chemistry of the sensory plant Mimosa pudica L. Springer, Berlin 1978.
• Zone melting. Chemistry, Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, New York, London 1966.
• Zone melting. Chemistry, Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, 1964.
• Symposium on zone melting and column crystallization. Karlsruhe 1963.
• About zone melting. 1959.

literature

• Rolf Gleiter, Klaus Maas: Hermann Schildknecht. In: Yearbook of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences. 1996/97.
• Schildknecht, Hermann. In: German Biographical Encyclopedia . Vol. 8 (2007), p. 856 ( digitized version ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Hermann Schildknecht in the catalog of the German National Library
• Hermann Schildknecht on the website of Heidelberg University

Individual evidence

1. ^ Member entry by Hermann Schildknecht at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on June 20, 2016.
2. ↑ Prof. Dr. Hermann Schildknecht. with picture. Member entry at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences , accessed on June 20, 2016 .