Johann Frederik Eijkman

Johann Frederik Eijkman
Portrait from Nagasaki University School of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Born	(1851-01-19)January 19, 1851 Nijkerk
Died	January 7, 1915(1915-01-07) (aged 63) Groningen
Fields	Chemist
Institutions	Tokyo, Groningen

Johan Fredrik Eykman or Johann Frederik Eijkman (January 19, 1851 – January 7, 1915) was a Dutch chemist.

Family background

He is one of the eight children of Christiaan Eijkman, the headmaster of a local school, and Johanna Alida Pool. His brother Christiaan Eijkman (1858-1930) was a physician and professor of physiology whose demonstration that beriberi is caused by poor diet led to the discovery of vitamins. Together with Sir Frederick Hopkins, he received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

Life in Japan

He was hired during the Meiji period, a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. During his stay in Japan, he was the first to isolate shikimic acid in 1885 from the Japanese flower shikimi (シキミ, the Japanese star anise, Illicium anisatum).

Works

"Phytochemische Notizen ueber einige Japanische Pflanzen"

• 1883 : "Phytochemische Notizen ueber einige Japanische Pflanzen"

References

• Notice sur la vie et l'oeuvre scientifique Johan Frederik Eykman. Recueil des Travaux Chimiques des Pays-Bas et de la Belgique, 1916, Volume 35, Issue 11-12, pages 365–411, doi:10.1002/recl.19160351102
• Johan Frederik Eykman—A physical chemist. van Klooster H. S., Journal of Chemical Education, volume 28, issue 12, page 616, doi:10.1021/ed028p616