Ernst Leopold Salkowski

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Ernst Leopold Salkowski

Ernst Leopold Salkowski (born October 11, 1844 in Koenigsberg , † March 8, 1923 in Berlin ) was a German physician and physiological chemist .

Life

After attending high school in Königsberg , Salkowski studied medicine at the University of Königsberg and received his doctorate there in 1867 under Ernst von Leyden . His work was entitled De centro Budgii ciliospinali . He completed his training in Vienna , in Tübingen with Felix Hoppe-Seyler and in Heidelberg with Wilhelm Kühne . In 1869 he took a position as an assistant at the Medical Clinic of the University of Königsberg, followed by a position at the Physiological Institute of the University of Heidelberg . After Rudolf Virchow suggested him in 1872 as an assistant for the chemical laboratory of the Pathological Institute of the Charité , he completed his habilitation there and was appointed associate professor for medicinal chemistry at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin in 1874. From 1880 he took over the management of the chemical laboratory at Virchow's Pathological Institute. Salkowski was appointed a secret medical councilor in 1904 and a full honorary professor in 1909. Two years after his retirement he died in Berlin.

Salkowski was married and had two children. His brother Heinrich Otto Salkowski (born April 13, 1846, † October 30, 1929) was also a chemist and professor at the University of Münster .

Act

Salkowski mainly worked in the field of physiological and pathological chemistry and also used related subjects such as pharmacology , analytical chemistry and hygiene . This made him one of the first researchers in the still young field of biochemistry. His main interest was the discovery of metabolic intermediates and end products. To this end, he developed numerous detection methods, some of which are still used today. Merck's 1924 reagent directory, for example, listed more than 25 detection reactions under the name Salkowski's reaction . These reactions can be used to detect pentoses , glucose , cholesterol , carbon monoxide or creatinine , among other things . Today the cholesterol test is mainly referred to as the Salkowski reaction or Salkowski test . For this purpose, cholesterol crystals are dissolved in chloroform and concentrated sulfuric acid is added. The chloroform phase turns blood red and a green fluorescence can be observed in the sulfuric acid phase. The red color is due to the bicholestadiene disulfonic acid . This arises from two cholesterol molecules with elimination of water and subsequent sulfonation .

Early on, Salkowski examined the composition of the excretion products of various animal species. He recognized, for example, that feeding dogs with uric acid leads to an increase in the concentration of allantoin in the urine and concluded from this that uric acid is converted into allantoin in the dog's body.

As early as 1876 he published his first work on pathological phenol excretion , which in the 1880s formed the basis for further publications on the products of protein putrefaction and their behavior in the organism. Since he had to suppress the influence of microorganisms for these experiments , he made use of the previously almost unknown antiseptic effect of chloroform. He worked closely with his brother on these investigations. Their work made it clear that the same reaction products arise in chemical hydrolysis and in enzymatic splitting of biomolecules . This knowledge made it possible to simulate processes in the living organism using biochemical methods in test tubes. The in vitro experiment was from then on as a model for in vivo processes or has even been equated this.

In 1885, Salkowski first detected indole-3-acetic acid in the fermentation medium of a non-plant organism. The importance of this compound, which as a phytohormone from the group of auxins plays an essential role in plant growth, was not recognized until about 50 years later by the Dutch botanist Frits Warmolt Went and the English-American plant physiologist Kenneth V. Thimann . The color reaction developed by Salkowski for the detection of indole-3-acetic acid, in which ferric chloride and perchloric acid are used, is still used in the Salkowski assay today.

Salkowski was also the first to describe the process of degradation of cells and tissues by intracellular enzymes known as autolysis . He called this process in his 1890 publication as autodigestion (self-digestion).

In 1892, together with Jastrowitz, he discovered pentosuria , an abnormality of the carbohydrate metabolism which is characterized by the occurrence of pentoses in the urine. This anomaly is considered harmless and does not require treatment.

Salkowski also made a contribution in the field of food analysis. The evidence he developed for phytosterols found in vegetable fats proved that animal fats were often adulterated at the time by adding vegetable fat.

Protein metabolism, digestion and urinary chemistry were Salkowski's main research areas throughout his life. In addition, the passing on of biochemical knowledge, which hardly played a role in the training of doctors around 1900, was very important to him. As a teacher he tried to convince the budding physicians of the importance of his specialty. Salkowski's pupils were, for example, the hygienists Martin Hahn and Louis Sigurd Fridericia . Otto Folin found access to work with hospital patients through Salkowski and, during a research stay in Berlin, developed enthusiasm for one of his later research focuses, uric acid. Paul Grosser also worked in his laboratory for some time.

Salkowski published about 340 publications in scientific journals. His main work includes The Doctrine of Urine , a handbook that he wrote together with the pathologist and internist Wilhelm von Leube , as well as the Practicum of Physiological and Pathological Chemistry, along with instructions for inorganic analysis for mediciners .

He was a member of the Swedish and Hungarian Academy of Sciences and an honorary member of the Italian Medical Academy.

Fonts

  • The doctrine of urine. A manual for students and doctors . Hirschwald, Berlin 1882 (together with Wilhelm von Leube ).
  • Practicum in physiological and pathological chemistry together with instructions for inorganic analysis for mediciners . Hirschwald, Berlin 1893.

literature

Web links

Commons : Ernst Leopold Salkowski  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Michael Engel:  Ernst Salkowski. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2 , p. 377 f. ( Digitized version ).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Pagel-1901: Salkowski, Ernst Leopold
  3. ^ H. Freundlich: Meeting on November 11, 1929 . In: Reports of the German Chemical Society (A and B Series) . tape 62 , no. 11 , 1929, pp. A127-A131 , doi : 10.1002 / cber.19290621131 .
  4. ↑ Emanuel Merck: Merck's reagent directory containing the common reagents and reactions sorted by author name . For use in chemical, pharmaceutical, physiological and bacteriological laboratories and for clinical diagnostic purposes. 5th edition. Darmstadt 1924, p. 433-438 .
  5. ^ Charles Daniel: Kenneth V. Thimann, Biology: Santa Cruz. In: content.cdlib.org. University of California, accessed May 20, 2013 .
  6. ↑ Oscar Touster: Pentose metabolism and pentosuria . In: The American Journal of Medicine . tape 26 , no. 5 , May 1959, p. 724-739 , PMID 13649698 .
  7. ↑ Whonamedit - Louis Sigurd Fridericia. In: Whonamedit. Retrieved May 20, 2013 .
  8. ↑ S. Meites: Otto Folin's medical legacy . In: Clin Chem . tape 31 , no. 8 , 1985, pp. 1402-4 , PMID 3893800 ( online [PDF; 720 kB ]).


personal data
SURNAME Salkowski, Ernst Leopold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German biochemist
DATE OF BIRTH October 11, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH Königsberg (Prussia)
DATE OF DEATH March 8, 1923
Place of death Berlin