Fundamental Science and Applications for Biomaterials 47
OH
R
p-Hydroxyphenyl
OH
R
OCH 3
Guaiacyl Syringyl
OH
R
CH 3 O OCH 3
Figure 2.7The generic lignin monomeric structural motifs that constitute the totality of all of the
lignin polymers that are extant in nature.
Figure 2.8Afluorescence
micrograph obtained from a
cross-section of wood cells. Shown in
the micrograph are the major
elements of the wood cell starting
from the inner lumen (dark, no
fluorescence), normal lignified cell
wall (second part extending from the
inner dark sphere), to the outer
middle lamella.
2.2.4 The Discovery of Cellulose and Lignin
Anselme Payen (1795–1891) was born in Paris to Marc and Jean Payen, a family in which
there was great respect for science, law, and chemistry. In fact, young Anselme (at the
tender age of 13) began a lifelong love of studying science first with his father, a man
whose entrepreneurial spirit led him to establish chemical factories, and then Anselme
went off to study chemistry, physics, and mathematics at the École Polytechnique under
the tutelage of Louis Nicolas Vauquelin and Michel Eugène Chevreul. Interestingly, after
this quasi-internship, he returned to work for his father as the superintendent of a borax
refining plant when he was only 23 years old (1818). What was so unique about this
situation was that Payen’s father had devised a better way of producing borax from boric
acid that allowed him better market opportunities. After Payen’s father died in 1820,
he held sole custody of the family estate. Payen turned his interest to one of his father’s
factories that refined sugar from beets. Interestingly, he employed activated charcoal
to decolorize the sugar, a method that has been in vogue ever since that impressive
discovery. In addition, this work helped to expedite the transition, on a world stage, from
obtaining sugar from cane to beets. One of his most remarkable efforts and perhaps what
he may be best known for is the discovery of diastase (from the Greek for “separate”), an
enzyme that converts starch to glucose. He was able to isolate this substance from malt
extract in 1833; interestingly, it was the first isolated enzyme, an organic system that
demonstrates catalysis, that is, enhancing the rate of reaction without being consumed.
