Eduard Buchner discovered the first free enzyme

The term enzyme was coined from a Greek word meaning ‘in yeast’ – it was suggested in 1876 by Wilhelm Friedrich Kuhne (1837-1900).

In 1897 the German chemist Eduard Buchner accidentally discovered that cell-free yeast extract could still convert sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide.

He made an extract of yeast cells by grinding them and filtering off the remaining cell debris. This discovery proved that whole cells were not necessarily required for fermentation and thereby inaugurated the field of enzymology.

Buchner published his findings in the paper ‘Alcoholic Fermentation without Yeats Cells.’

In 1898 he continued his study on fermentation process in Berlin, and producing 15 papers on the topic. In one paper, ‘The Zymase: Fermentation,’ he detailed his discoveries and called the catalyst in the cell extract as zymase.

This was really the beginning of the study of enzymes and the science of biochemistry - before Buchner’s discovery scientists has believed that the reactions of life could only take place within living cells.
Eduard Buchner discovered the first free enzyme

History of biochemistry

Modern biochemistry developed out of and largely came to replace what in the nineteenth and early twentieth century was called physiological chemistry, which dealt more with extracellular chemistry such as the chemistry of digestion and of body fluids.

Perhaps the first biochemical experiment in Europe may have been that of Jan Baptista Van Helmont (1577-1644). Van Helmont a contemporary of William Harvey, deducted from an experiment that willow tree grew without deriving its substance primarily from the soil but from the water alone.

He tried to explain all disease phenomenon as chemical changes. This point can be considered as marking the beginning of biochemistry.

The word ‘biochemie’ was coined by Hoppe-Seyler in his introduction to the first volume of Zeitschrift fur Physiologische Chemie in 1877. 

The first use of the term ‘biochemistry’ in a journal was in 1902 in F. Hof-meister’s Beitragezur Chemische Physiologie und Pathologie.

In the United States, J.J Able and C.A Herter founded the Journal of Biological Chemistry in 1905, while in Britain the Biochemical Journal was founded in 1906.

Classical biochemistry is in the main study of cytoplasmic enzymes and the interacting pathways of reactions which they catalyze.

Until the mid 1940s those engaged in these studies had been trained primarily as chemists or physiologists.
History of biochemistry