Johann Frederik Eijkman


Johan Fredrik Eykman or Johann Frederik Eijkman was a Dutch chemist.

Family background

He is one of the eight children of Christiaan Eijkman, the headmaster of a local school, and Johanna Alida Pool. His brother Christiaan Eijkman 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.

Life in Japan

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.

Works