Fischer and Leuchs Synthesis of Glucosamine

Some reference should be made in this review to Fischer and Leuchs synthesis of glucosamine from o-arabinose through the essential steps of the Fischer higher-carbon sugar process. However, the subject of the synthesis of amino sugars, which was later developed so extensively by P. A. Levene, has been reviewed in his monograph. 

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Leuchs, Hermann (1879-1945), German chemist and discoverer of the N-carboxy anhydrides of amino acids. He carried out the work for his doctoral thesis under the direction of Emd Fischer on the synthesis of serine and glucosamine. In 1902, he received his D. Phd. degree and achieved independent status from 1904 onwards, Privatdozent (1910) and associate professor (1914). He turned down offers of frill professorships at the Universities of Graz and Braunschweig, which would have improved his position, in favor of a personal frill professorship at the Berlin Institute. He ended his life in the final days of World War II [F. Krohnke, Hermann Leuchs , Chem. Ber. 1952, 85, LV]. 

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