Chemical landmark for St Andrews carbohydrate chemists
A National Chemical Landmark plaque has been unveiled outside a chapel in St Andrews to recognise the contributions of two local chemists to sugar chemistry
Our 63rd National Chemical Landmark celebrates the St Andrews chemists Thomas Purdie and James Irvine, whose work at the start of the 1900s laid the foundations of modern carbohydrate chemistry. Passers-by can find the plaque on the railings outside St Salvator’s Chapel on North Street, close to the former chemistry department where Purdie and Irvine worked.
The plaque reads:
Chemical structures of simple sugars
Near this site in 1903, James Coloquhoun Irvine, Thomas Purdie and their team found a way to understand the chemical structure of simple sugars like glucose and lactose. Over the next 18 years this allowed them to lay the foundations of modern carbohydrate chemistry, with implications for medicine, nutrition and biochemistry.
Dr Alan Aitken, senior lecturer in organic chemistry at the University of St Andrews and chair of our Tayside Local Section, led the unveiling ceremony and highlighted the importance of Purdie and Irvine’s work:
“By the time Irvine resigned as professor of chemistry to become principal of the university in 1921, St Andrews was recognised internationally as a centre of excellence in sugar chemistry.”
Thomas Purdie, born in Biggar in 1843, became professor of chemistry at the University of St Andrews in 1884. Purdie's interest was in organic chemistry and particularly stereochemistry. He was the first person to separate lactic acid into its two mirror-image forms in 1892, and in 1898, he reported a new way to alkylate lactic acid with silver oxide and alkyl iodides.
James Irvine, who was born in Glasgow in 1877, was an undergraduate at the University of St Andrews in this period, graduating with a degree in chemistry in 1898. Purdie arranged for him to complete a doctorate in Germany where he learned more about sugars and realised that the method developed by Purdie in St Andrews might be able to shed light on the complex structures of certain carbohydrates. Purdie encouraged Irvine to complete his degree in Germany as quickly as possible and return to St Andrews to test out his idea. This began a very fruitful period of research and their first paper in 1903 unambiguously proved the long-suspected structure of sucrose.
The First World War halted the progress of their research but during this period, their expertise in carbohydrate chemistry became of vital importance. Certain carbohydrates usually obtained from overseas were desperately needed but were unavailable, so a factory-style operation was set up in the town involving local residents working in shifts.
Dr Aitken praised the location of the plaque, which should bring the achievements to a much wider section of the community:
“The Chemical Landmark plaque should be mounted in as publicly visible a space as possible, giving those without a background in chemistry an insight into its significance in their everyday lives. I am sure you will agree that the plaque's location on the railings outside St Salvator's Chapel on North Street is about as publicly visible a location as we have in this university town, as well as being very close to the former chemistry department where the work involved was carried out.”
Professor Alan Dearle, Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of St Andrews accepted the plaque on the university’s behalf.
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