News Release

American Chemical Society to honor Albert Szent-Györgyi

Grant and Award Announcement

American Chemical Society

The American Chemical Society will honor the work of Albert Szent-Györgyi in identifying vitamin C with a ceremony in Szeged, Hungary, on May 11. In conjunction with the Hungarian Chemical Society, the ACS will designate Szent-Györgyi’s pioneering studies of vitamin C and biological combustion as an International Historic Chemical Landmark.

The American Chemical Society established the landmarks program in 1992 to commemorate seminal events in the history of chemistry and to heighten public awareness of the role chemistry has played in the history of the United States and around the world.

The highlight of the ceremony will be the presentation of a plaque to be mounted at the University of Szeged. Dr. Attila Pavláth, the immediate past president of the American Chemical Society, will present the plaque to Alajos Kálmán, the President of the Hungarian Chemical Society. Dr. Pavláth was born and educated in Hungary, and he taught at the Technical University of Budapest before leaving Hungary in 1956. In 1958 he joined the Western Research Center at Stauffer Chemical Company in Richmond, California. Since 1967 he has been with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Albany, California.

The text of the plaque, which is in Hungarian and English, reads:

Albert Szent-Györgyi (1893-1986), biochemist, pioneered the study of biological oxidation mechanisms during the 1920s. Between 1930 and 1936, while a Professor at Szeged University, he proved that hexuronic acid, which he had previously isolated, is identical with vitamin C and that it could be extracted in kilogram quantities from paprika. In 1937, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his discoveries in connection with the biological combustion processes, with special reference to vitamin C and the catalysis of fumaric acid." In later years he and his collaborators achieved world renown in the field of the biochemical mechanism of muscular contraction. From 1948 until his death, he worked in the United States where he was also involved in cancer research.

Scientists, doctors, and sailors knew for several centuries that eating citrus fruit helped prevent the serious condition known as scurvy, which caused swollen and bleeding gums, loose teeth, hemorrhaging under the skin, and slow healing of wounds. Sailors were particularly prone to developing scurvy, often dying from the condition. By the middle of the 18th century, the British medical community recognized that scurvy resulted from a dietary deficiency. But it would take almost another two centuries before researchers could pinpoint the substance responsible for preventing scurvy, which was vitamin C.

Szent-Györgyi was born in 1893 into a family that included three generations of scientists. He was interested in science at an early age and enrolled in the University of Budapest, but World War I interrupted his studies. Anti-war all his life, Szent-Györgyi apparently shot himself to escape combat and return to school in 1917. He reportedly said that he was “overcome with such a mad desire to return to science that one day I grabbed my revolver and in despair put a shot through my upper arm.”

After studying at various European universities, Szent-Györgyi accepted a post as professor of medical chemistry at the University of Szeged. Earlier, he had isolated a substance that he called “hexuronic acid.” At Szeged, he and other researchers concluded that hexuronic acid, which they renamed ascorbic acid, was the long sought vitamin C. In his research on ascorbic acid, Szent-Györgyi made use of the local speciality, paprika. Szeged is the paprika capital of the world, and matching salt and paprika shakers are found on every restaurant table.

Szent-Györgyi continued his scientific research in Hungary, but in 1947 he immigrated to the United States. He assumed the directorship of the Institute for Muscle Research in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where he conducted research into cell division and the cause of cancer. He wrote numerous books, including The Crazy Ape in 1970, which was a passionate commentary on science and the future of the human race. Albert Szent-Györgyi died on October 22, 1986.

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