Alexander Ellinger

Alexander Ellinger (17 April 1870 in Frankfurt am Main – 26 July 1923 in Frankfurt am Main) was a German chemist and pharmacologist.

From 1887, he studied chemistry at the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin under August Wilhelm von Hofmann and at the University of Bonn as a pupil of August Kekulé. Afterwards, he studied medicine at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, followed by work as an assistant in the institute of pharmacology at the University of Strasbourg. In 1897, he became an assistant to Max Jaffé in the laboratory of medicinal chemistry and experimental pharmacology at the University of Königsberg. In 1914, he was appointed professor of pharmacology at the newly established University of Frankfurt am Main.

He is remembered for his extensive biochemical research of several amino acids, especially tryptophan. In 1904, he isolated kynurenic acid from the urine of dogs that had been fed tryptophan. His other work included studies on the water exchange between body tissues and blood, on the formation on lymph,

Partial bibliography