Karl Freudenberg

Freudenberg, Karl, Emil Fischer and his Contribution to Carbohydrate Chemistry, 21, 1-38... 

In a biography prepared for the 1966 issue of Advances in Carbohydrate Chemistry, Karl Freudenberg wrote (5) ... 

Oesper, R. E. and Karl Freudenberg, "Bunsen s trip to Iceland, J. Chem. 

Since the pioneering work of Karl Freudenberg on displacements of carbohydrate p-toluene-sulfonates [1-5], bimolecular nucleophilic substitutions became one of the most employed and useful reactions in carbohydrate chemistry. Indeed SN2-type reactions have allowed the introduction of a variety of heteroatoms (halogens, N-, O-, S-) into carbohydrates, and the resulting compounds have been used in many synthetic and biological contexts [6],... 

The editors herewith present the twenty-first volume in this serial publication. To celebrate our coming of age, we are proud to offer a review of the contributions of Emil Fischer to carbohydrate chemistry, by one of his students, Professor Karl Freudenberg. In translation, some of the fine expression and style of the original German may have been lost, yet the review is nevertheless an outstanding evaluation of Fischer s contributions to the fundamentals of modern carbohydrate chemistry. 

The Editors note with regret the recent passing of Louis Malaprade, University of Nancy, discoverer of the stoichiometric oxidation of glycols by periodate, a reaction that has had such profound implications in the structural investigation of carbohydrates and of Karl Freudenberg, Heidelberg, last surviving student of Emil Fischer s, pioneer of important stereochemical concepts, and a scientist whose extensive contributions to synthesis included the classic, widely used acetone derivatives (isopropylidene acetals) of the monosaccharides. 

Privatdozent (lecturer) with Karl Freudenberg at the University of Heidelberg... 

In 1956, Karl Freudenberg at the University of Fleidel-berg had already succeeded in using an enzyme (phe-nol-oxidoreductase) from button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) to simulate the oligomerisation of coniferyl alcohol and thereby the biosynthesis of lignin. [141]... 

In the period 1910-1930 several distinguished chemists — Emil Fischer, Karl Freudenberg and Paul Karrer — made substantial contributions to early ideas on the gallotannins . But progress was severely hampered by the slow realisation that all the plant extracts consisted of mixtures of closely related metabolites and other phenols whose presence made separation and purification of the desired materials extremely difficult (97). Many of these problems have been relieved in recent years by application of various forms of chromatography and by concomitant use of spectroscopic methods for identification. 

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