Hermann Emde

Hermann Emde (born December 10, 1880 in Opladen , Rhineland , † July 19, 1935 in Thun , Switzerland) was a German chemist .

Live and act

As the son of a chemist, Emde studied pharmacy and chemistry at the University of Braunschweig and the University of Marburg . In 1906 he received his doctorate . For his habilitation , he turned to food chemistry and pharmacy in 1908 and was an assistant at the Institute for Pharmacy and Food Chemistry in Braunschweig. From 1918 Emde worked as a chemist in industry ( Schering , Berlin and later at Hoffmann-La Roche in Switzerland). In 1930 he became associate professor and in 1931 full professor for pharmaceutical and food chemistry at the University of Königsberg .

Emde dealt with the constitution clarification of natural substances . His work on ephedrine began in 1906. In 1929 he succeeded in elucidating the configuration of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine . In 1909, Emde discovered the Emde degradation , later named after him , a chemical reaction of quaternary ammonium salts to tertiary amines and hydrocarbons ( alkanes or alkenes ). The Emde breakdown was the basis for clarifying the constitution of some alkaloids .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Winfried R. Pötsch, Annelore Fischer and Wolfgang Müller with the assistance of Heinz Cassebaum: Lexicon of important chemists , VEB Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig, 1988, pp. 116–117, ISBN 3-323-00185-0 .