Artturi Ilmari Virtanen

Artturi Ilmari Virtanen [ ɑrt ː uri ilmɑri virtɑnɛn ] ( born January 15, 1895 in Helsinki, † November 11, 1973 Helsinki) was a Finnish biochemist. He received the 1945 Nobel Prize in Chemistry " for his investigations and discoveries in the field of agriculture and food chemistry, especially for his method of preservation of foods and fodder crops ." He is regarded for his work as one of the founders of nutritional science and especially of food chemistry.

Biography

Artturi Ilmari Virtanen was born in 1895 in Helsinki as the son of Kaarlo Virtanen and Serafiina Isotalo. He received his education at the gymnasium of Viipuri ( Vyborg ), then studied at the university from 1913 chemistry, biology and physics. In 1919 he finished his studies with a doctorate and started his professional life in the laboratories of the Central Association of the Finnish dairy cooperative " Valio ". In 1921 he became director of the cooperative. Ten years later, in 1931, he received a private laboratory and an appeal for a professor of biochemistry at the University of Helsinki, which he retained until his retirement in 1948. He died in 1973 in his hometown.

Work

The work of Artturi Virtanen focused mainly on the ingredients of plant food. He studied about the biosynthesis of vitamins and was able to isolate a number of new ingredients from plants and examine their importance in the diet.

In 1924 he examined the bacterial processes in cheese and milk production, watching the enzymatic processes in the fermentation processes. In addition, he examined the nitrogen fixation in leguminous plants ( legumes) and their root nodule bacteria. He could see the red dye Lego globin identify the bacteria and turned out a close chemical relationship with the blood pigment hemoglobin and the importance in the absorption of gases. Further investigations focused on fermentation processes in the soil, the acidity of soils and the lifestyle of soil bacteria.

The biochemical processes he also focused on nitrate uptake in plants and the production of vitamins, amino acids and proteins. He isolated, including new forms of keto carboxylic acids, amino carboxylic acids and sulfur-containing compounds and antibacterial contents of the onion and garlic.

He was not destroyed the Nobel Prize mainly due to the development of the AIV method for preservation of foods in the important ingredients such as vitamins. He achieved this through special silage process after harvesting protein-rich fodder crops. Later, he also developed a method for the production of milk in protein-free diet of the cows.