Oswald Schmiedeberg
Encyclopedia
Baltic German
The Baltic Germans were mostly ethnically German inhabitants of the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, which today form the countries of Estonia and Latvia. The Baltic German population never made up more than 10% of the total. They formed the social, commercial, political and cultural élite in...
pharmacologist.
Schmiedeberg was born at Gut Laidsen in the Imperial Russian
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
province of Courland
Courland
Courland is one of the historical and cultural regions of Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland.- Geography and climate :...
. In 1866 he earned his medical doctorate from the University of Dorpat with a thesis concerning the measurement of chloroform
Chloroform
Chloroform is an organic compound with formula CHCl3. It is one of the four chloromethanes. The colorless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid is a trihalomethane, and is considered somewhat hazardous...
in blood. Afterwards he was an assistant to Rudolf Buchheim
Rudolf Buchheim
Rudolf Buchheim was a German pharmacologist who was born in Bautzen. In 1845 he earned his doctorate from the University of Leipzig and soon after became a professor at the University of Dorpat. While at Dorpat he created the first pharmacological institute at that school...
(1820–1879) at Dorpat (Tartu)
Tartu
Tartu is the second largest city of Estonia. In contrast to Estonia's political and financial capital Tallinn, Tartu is often considered the intellectual and cultural hub, especially since it is home to Estonia's oldest and most renowned university. Situated 186 km southeast of Tallinn, the...
. In 1872 he became a professor of pharmacology at the University of Strasbourg
University of Strasbourg
The University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is the largest university in France, with about 43,000 students and over 4,000 researchers....
, where he remained for the next 46 years.
Schmiedeberg is often recognized as the "father of modern pharmacology". His work primarily dealt with finding the correlation between the chemical structure of substances and their effectiveness as narcotic
Narcotic
The term narcotic originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with any sleep-inducing properties. In the United States of America it has since become associated with opioids, commonly morphine and heroin and their derivatives, such as hydrocodone. The term is, today, imprecisely...
s. With his pupil Hans Horst Meyer
Hans Horst Meyer
Hans Horst Meyer was a German pharmacologist. He studied medicine and did research in pharmacology. The Meyer-Overton hypothesis on the mode of action on general anaesthetics is partially named after him...
he discovered glucuronic acid
Glucuronic acid
Glucuronic acid is a carboxylic acid. Its structure is similar to that of glucose. However, glucuronic acid's sixth carbon is oxidized to a carboxylic acid...
as a conjugation partner in xenobiotic metabolism
Xenobiotic metabolism
Xenobiotic metabolism is the set of metabolic pathways that modify the chemical structure of xenobiotics, which are compounds foreign to an organism's normal biochemistry, such as drugs and poisons...
and later found that glucuronic acid also was a component of cartilage
Cartilage
Cartilage is a flexible connective tissue found in many areas in the bodies of humans and other animals, including the joints between bones, the rib cage, the ear, the nose, the elbow, the knee, the ankle, the bronchial tubes and the intervertebral discs...
and occurred as a disaccharide
Disaccharide
A disaccharide or biose is the carbohydrate formed when two monosaccharides undergo a condensation reaction which involves the elimination of a small molecule, such as water, from the functional groups only. Like monosaccharides, disaccharides form an aqueous solution when dissolved in water...
of chondroitin sulfate
Chondroitin sulfate
Chondroitin sulfate is a sulfated glycosaminoglycan composed of a chain of alternating sugars . It is usually found attached to proteins as part of a proteoglycan. A chondroitin chain can have over 100 individual sugars, each of which can be sulfated in variable positions and quantities...
. He also studied the composition of hyaluronic acid and explored its relationship to collagen
Collagen
Collagen is a group of naturally occurring proteins found in animals, especially in the flesh and connective tissues of mammals. It is the main component of connective tissue, and is the most abundant protein in mammals, making up about 25% to 35% of the whole-body protein content...
, amyloid
Amyloid
Amyloids are insoluble fibrous protein aggregates sharing specific structural traits. Abnormal accumulation of amyloid in organs may lead to amyloidosis, and may play a role in various neurodegenerative diseases.-Definition:...
and chondroitin sulfate. In 1869 he demonstrated that muscarine
Muscarine
Muscarine, L--muscarine, or muscarin is a natural product found in certain mushrooms, particularly in Inocybe and Clitocybe species, such as the deadly C. dealbata. Mushrooms in the genera Entoloma and Mycena have also been found to contain levels of muscarine which can be dangerous if ingested...
had a similar effect on the heart
Heart
The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
as electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve
Vagus nerve
The vagus nerve , also called pneumogastric nerve or cranial nerve X, is the tenth of twelve paired cranial nerves...
. He also demonstrated the hypnotic properties of urethane
Ethyl carbamate
Ethyl carbamate is a chemical compound with the molecular formula C3H7NO2 first prepared in the nineteenth century. Structurally, it is an ester of carbamic acid...
.
Schmiedeberg was a major factor in the success of the German pharmaceutical industry prior to World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, having trained most of the professors at the time. He published over 200 scientific books and articles, including the influential Archiv für experimentelle Pathologie und Pharmakologie with pathologists Bernhard Naunyn
Bernhard Naunyn
Bernhard Naunyn was German pathologist who was born in Berlin. After receiving his degree at the University of Berlin in 1863, he became an assistant to pathologist Friedrich Theodor von Frerichs...
(1839–1925) and Edwin Klebs
Edwin Klebs
Theodor Albrecht Edwin Klebs was a German-Swiss pathologist. He is mainly known for his work on infectious diseases. He is the father of Arnold Klebs.-Life:...
(1834–1913). He died in Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden is a spa town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe...
.