History of biochemistry
The history of biochemistry can be said to have started with the ancient Greeks who were interested in the composition and processes of life, although biochemistry as a specific scientific discipline has its beginning around the early 19th century. Some argued that the beginning of biochemistry may have been the discovery of the first enzyme, diastase (today called amylase), in 1833 by Anselme Payen, while others considered Eduard Buchner's first demonstration of a complex biochemical process alcoholic fermentation in cell-free extracts to be the birth of biochemistry. Some might also point to the influential work of Justus von Liebig from 1842, "Animal chemistry, or, Organic chemistry in its applications to physiology and pathology", which presented a chemical theory of metabolism, or even earlier to the 18th century studies on fermentation and respiration by Antoine Lavoisier.
Biochar
The word "biochar" is a combination of "bio-" (from "biomass") and "char" (from "charcoal"). A search of the scientific literature for the term on databases such as SciFinder shows the first appearance of "biochar" in the scientific literature was in a paper at a national meeting of the American Chemical Society presented by Ph.D. candidate at the University of Missouri Dr. Harshavardhan D. Bapat and his thesis advisor Professor Stanley E. Manahan, “Chemchar Gasification of Hazardous Wastes and Mixed Wastes on a Biochar Matrix,” 215th American Chemical Society National Meeting, Dallas, March 29-April 2, 1998. The biochar described in this paper was prepared from milo grain seed by the "ChemChar triple-reverse-burn" gasification process ” developed in Prof. Manahan’s laboratory and patented (now expired) in 1992: “Process for the regeneration of activated carbon product by reverse burn gasification,” Patent number: 5124292