18TH CENTURY

"The 18th century marked the onset of physiological chemistry, a sub-field of chemistry that dealt more
with extracellular chemistry, such as the chemistry of digestion and of body fluids."
 
1. 1775: Antoine Lavoisier first proposed a mechanism for photosynthesis.
2. 1780s: Antoine Lavoisier proposed that the combustion of a candle is similar to the respiration of
animals, as both need O2.
 For the first time, a physiological process was explained with reference to a nonliving
mechanism.
 
19TH CENTURY
1. The early 1800s:  “Vitalism “ was a common belief--> the compounds found in living organisms (i.e.,
organic molecules) can only be produced by living organisms and could not be produced in the
laboratory.
 Vitalists argued that it was the presence of a “vital force” (life force or spirit) that distinguished
the living organic world from the inanimate inorganic world. 
2.1810s-1830s: A major substance from animals and plants was identified, composed of C, H, O, and N.
The term “Protein”, meaning the most important thing, was first used in 1838.
3. 1828: Friedrich Wöhler disproved this belief of vitalism by synthesizing urea, an organic molecule, and
a waste product of animal metabolism, from ammonium cyanate, an inorganic molecule obtained
from mineral (i.e., nonliving) sources. 
 Many science historians believe this in vitro synthesis of urea by Wöhler as the starting point of
Biochemistry.
4. 1836: Theodore Schwann proposed that the process of fermentation is solely limited to living yeast
cells..
5. 1850s-1890s: Carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleic acids were recognized.
6. 1856: Louis Pasteur’s experiment showed that fermentation depends highly on the physiological
functions that occur in bacteria and in living yeast cells.
7. 1869:  Friedrich Miescher first identified what he called “nuclein” inside the nuclei of human white
blood cells.
9. 1893: Eduard Buchner's first demonstration of alcoholic fermentation in cell-free yeast extracts was
considered by many as the starting point for the birth of biochemistry.
 
20TH CENTURY TO PRESENT 
1. 1900s: Eduard Buchner's concept of the enzyme. He prepared a cell-free extract of yeast which he
called the zymase. It fermented glucose and produced carbon dioxide and ethanol.
2. 1904: Carl Neuber coined the term “Biochemistry”.
3. 1919:     Phoebus Leven (Russian physician and chemist) was the first to discover the order of the
three major components of a single nucleotide (phosphate, pentose sugar, and nitrogenous base).  He is
also the first to discover the carbohydrate component of RNA (ribose), and the carbohydrate component
of DNA (deoxyribose).
4.1937: Hans Krebs discovered the process known as Citric Acid Cycle (also known as Krebs cycle) which
a series of chemical reactions that occur during cellular respiration.
5. 1950: Erwin Chargaff noted that the nucleotide composition of DNA differs among species and do not
repeat in the same order.
 “Chargaff’s Rule”: the amount of cytosine is equal to the amount of guanine, and the amount of
thymine is equal to the amount of adenine.
6. 1953: James Watson and Francis Crick introduced three dimensional and double-helical model of the
DNA.
7. 1958: Insulin was the first protein identified by Frederick Sanger.
8. 1961: The genetic code is made up of specific triplets of DNA bases that encode for particular amino
acids.
9. 1977: Frederick Sanger successfully sequenced the DNA of the human mitochondrial genome which
consisted of more than 16 000 nucleotides.

TYPES OF CHEMICAL BOND:

1. COVALENT BONDS:
 Nonpolar & Polar Covalent
2. NONCOVALENT BONDS:
 Hydrogen bonds
 Charge-charge interactions
 Dipole-dipole interactions
 Van der Waals
 Hydrophobic bonds
3. IONIC BOND