Asahina Yasuhiko

Asahina Yasuhiko ( Japanese 朝 比 奈 泰 彦 ; born April 16, 1881 in Honji district (today: Sumida ), Tokyo Prefecture ; † June 30, 1975 , Tokyo Prefecture) was a Japanese chemist and lichenologist . Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Asahina ". He was a professor at Tokyo University . He is considered to be the founder of the chemotaxonomy of lichens. His second son was the entomologist Asahina Shōjirō .

Asahina studied chemistry at the University of Tokyo , graduating in 1905. From 1909 on, Asahina studied with Richard Willstätter in Zurich and Emil Fischer in Berlin, and in 1912 earned a doctorate in pharmacy. Following the Japanese research tradition of that time, after his return to Japan he dealt with the chemistry of natural substances, including lichen, for which he had to systematically differentiate between them. As a result, he developed into a leading lichen researcher and taxonomist in the 1920s (there was only one lichenologist in Japan before him, Yasuda Atsushi ( 安 田 篤 , 1868–1924)).

He introduced p-phenylenediamine as a reagent for testing the colors of thalli of lichens and developed microcrystalline methods for studying the substances of lichens, which he also used for taxonomy, particularly of the genus Cladonia . He described many new species and, with his students, over 100 chemical substances from lichens.

He was a member of the Leopoldina . Asahina was honored with the Order of Culture in 1943 and as a person of special cultural merit in 1951 .

Fonts

• with S. Shibata: The chemistry of Lichen substances, 1954

Remarks

1. ↑ This award, which has been awarded since 1951, was introduced because - in contrast to the cultural order - it could be combined with an annuity. Since then it has been a preliminary stage to the cultural order.

literature

• Syo Kurokawa: Yasuhiko Asahina (1881-1975) , The Lichenologist, Volume 8, 1976, pp. 93-94, pdf

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} 朝 比奈泰 彦 . In: デ ジ タ ル 版 日本人 名 大 辞典 + Plus at kotobank.jp. Retrieved March 17, 2017 (Japanese). 
2. ↑ Member entry of Yasuhiko Asahina at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on March 16, 2017.

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Asahina is the family name, Yasuhiko the first name.