1795-1871

French chemist who made advances in the study of carbohydrates and enzymes. Payen developed a charcoal filter used to decolor sugar. He discovered diastase, an organic catalyst that converts starch to the sugar maltose and the first enzyme produced in concentrated form. From the cell walls of plants he isolated cellulose, which he found to be similar to starch. Following Payen, the names of enzymes would come to end in ase and carbohydrates in ose.