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Obituary: Professor Tadeus Reichstein
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Tadeus Reichstein was one of the century's great masters of
organic chemistry.
In 1933 he made his first great contribution to organic
chemistry by the invention of the first practical synthesis of
Vitamin C. This involved, as the key steps, the reduction of
glucose to sorbitol followed by the microbiological oxidation of
the latter to L-sorbose. Thus, long before the present emphasis on
enzymatic methods in organic synthesis, Reichstein carried out a
remarkably efficient oxidation of ...
