Tadeus Reichstein

Tadeusz Reichstein ( born July 20, 1897 in Wloclawek, Poland Congress, as Tadeusz Reichstein, and later Thadeus; † August 1, 1996 in Basel, Switzerland ) was a Swiss chemist and botanist Polish- Jewish origin. He received the 1950 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

School, university and activities

Tadeusz Reichstein spent his early childhood in Kyiv, first went to school in Jena and came up with eight years in Switzerland. After attending the Industrial School Zurich ( secondary school, today MNG Rämibühl ), he studied chemistry at the ETH Zurich and received his PhD in 1921 at Hermann Staudinger with a thesis about the open-chain Tropin and some of its homologues. In 1929 his habilitation was on the composition of the flavoring of roasted chicory and working in the heterocyclic series in the field of organic chemistry.

In 1931 he became assistant to Leopold Ružička, and in 1937 he was appointed associate professor of special organic and physiological chemistry at the ETH Zurich. From 1938 he took over the management of the Pharmaceutical Institute of the University of Basel and 1946 in addition to the Chair of Organic Chemistry. From 1960 to 1967 he was director of the Institute for Organic Chemistry at the University of Basel.

Discoveries, developments and Nobel Prize

For the discoveries among the hormones of the adrenal cortex, their structure and biological effects he received in 1950, together with Edward Calvin Kendall and Philip S. Hench the Nobel Prize for Medicine. He was a member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences.

Reichstein isolated the hormones of the adrenal cortex, among other things, clarified the molecular structure of vital aldosterone and recognized the therapeutic efficacy of cortisone in the treatment of rheumatic diseases. 1932 presented Tadeusz Reichstein vitamin C on a path of synthesis ago, was suitable for industrial production. After his trial, the pharmaceutical company Hoffmann -La Roche produced in 1934 about 50 kg vitamin C. On Reichstein returns introduced in 1934 Reichstein synthesis of ascorbic acid (vitamin C).

In 1935 Reichstein developed the substance deoxycorticosterone acetate ( DOCA ). DOCA could also show in very severe cases of Addinsonschen disease cures.

After his retirement in 1967 he devoted himself entirely to the study of ferns. His botanical author abbreviation is richest.

Reichstein was the first Nobel Prize winner, who completed the 99th year of life.

Writings (selection )

  • An effective crystalline substance from the cortex of the adrenal gland, corticosterone. Amsterdam 1936
  • Chemistry of the adrenal cortical hormones, Nobel lecture, held in the Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm on 11 December 1950 Nordstedt 1951
  • Oswald Renkonen and Othmar Schindler: The Constitution of Sino Genin: glycosides and aglycones. Zagreb 1957
  • The sugar of cardioactive glycosides. Proceedings London, 1958
  • With Bernhard Lang and M. Maturova Isolation of substances from " Gloriosa superba Levin ". Stuttgart 1959
  • Particularities of the sugar of cardioactive glycosides. Weinheim 1962
  • Adolf Portmann as editor: hormones - substances that control life. Basel 1967
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