Felix Ehrlich was a German chemist and biochemist.

Life and work

Felix Ehrlich studied in Berlin and Munich. After receiving his doctorate in 1900, he worked at the Institute of Sugar Industry in Berlin. In 1906 he obtained his diploma in chemistry. From 1909 he worked as professor in Breslau, and later as director of the Institute on Biotechnology and Agriculture.

Ehrlich discovered the amino acid isoleucine

Isoleucine

Isoleucine is an α-amino acid with the chemical formula HO2CCHCHCH2CH3. It is an essential amino acid, which means that humans cannot synthesize it, so it must be ingested. Its codons are AUU, AUC and AUA....

 in hemoglobin in 1903, developed a process for resolving racemic amino acid

Amino acid

Amino acids are molecules containing an amine group, a carboxylic acid group and a side-chain that varies between different amino acids. The key elements of an amino acid are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen...

s in 1906, described the formation of fusel oils by fermentation, amino acid during alcoholic fermentation in 1905 and worked on the structure of pectin

Pectin

Pectin is a structural heteropolysaccharide contained in the primary cell walls of terrestrial plants. It was first isolated and described in 1825 by Henri Braconnot...

s.

Ehrlich demonstrated that yeast attacks the natural amino acids essentially by splitting off carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...

 and re-placing the amino group with hydroxyl

Hydroxyl

A hydroxyl is a chemical group containing an oxygen atom covalently bonded with a hydrogen atom. In inorganic chemistry, the hydroxyl group is known as the hydroxide ion, and scientists and reference works generally use these different terms though they refer to the same chemical structure in...

. By this reaction, the tryptophane gives rise to tryptophol

Tryptophol

Tryptophol is a chemical compound that induces sleep in humans. It is formed in the liver after disulfiram treatment. It is also produced by the trypanosomal parasite in sleeping sickness....

.