Johann Frederik Eijkman

He is one of the eight children of Christiaan Eijkman, the headmaster of a local school, and Johanna Alida Pool. His brother Christiaan Eijkman (1858–1930) was a physician and professor of physiology whose demonstration that beriberi is caused by poor diet led to the discovery of vitamins. Together with Sir Frederick Hopkins, his brother received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

He was hired during the Meiji period, a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. During his stay in Japan, he was the first to isolate shikimic acid in 1885 from the Japanese flower shikimi (シキミ, the Japanese star anise, Illicium anisatum).^[1]

 

• 1883 : "Phytochemische Notizen ueber einige Japanische Pflanzen"

• Notice sur la vie et l'oeuvre scientifique Johan Frederik Eykman. Recueil des Travaux Chimiques des Pays-Bas et de la Belgique, 1916, Volume 35, Issue 11-12, pages 365–411, doi:10.1002/recl.19160351102
• Johan Frederik Eykman—A physical chemist. van Klooster H. S., Journal of Chemical Education, volume 28, issue 12, page 616, doi:10.1021/ed028p616