| RefNo | EC/1979/11 |
| Previous numbers | Cert XX, 144 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Evans, William Charles: certificate of election to the Royal Society |
| Date | 1975 |
| Description | Citation typed |
| Citation | Distinguished for his work on the microbial metabolism of aromatic compounds and braken poisoning in farm animals. He has elucidated the biochemical events occurring during the aerobic microbial metabolism of aromatic substrates and was the first to recognise the ortho- and meta- ring cleavage enzymes and their catalytic functions. He also discovered the reductive pathway of aromatic ring metabolism carried out by some photosynthetic baterial and other soil and ruman organisms under anaerobic conditions. These reactions are an essential step in the carbon cycle of Nature for the degradation of plant phenolics and aromatic agro-chemicals in the environment.
His contributions to the problem of bracken poisoning in farm animals have been very substantial. He demonstrated the occurrence of thiaminase in a plant, bracken, for the first time and showed that bracken poisoning in homogastric animals is an induced thiamine deficiency which is also the cause of cerebrocortical necrosis in ruminants in which an organism established in the gut microflora produces thiaminase. In cattle bracken poisoning he showed that another toxic agent is involved which is actively being investigated.
His most recent work on the tyrosine-tyrosinase reaction has established the presence of a new intermediate -2,4,5-trihydroxyphenylalanine. |
| AccessStatus | Closed |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA1629 | Evans; William Charles (1911 - 1988) | 1911 - 1988 |