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How did Eduard Buchner show that fermentation can occur without living yeast cells?

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Diagram showing how epinephrine binding to a beta-adrenergic receptor on a cell membrane activates a G-protein, which then stimulates adenylyl cyclase to convert ATP into cyclic AMP (cAMP), leading to physiological effects such as increased heart rate, blood vessel dilation, and glycogen breakdown. — Biochemistry In biochemistry, researchers study the chemical substances and processes that occur in living organisms and cells. In particular, various processes by which cells gain energy, such as epinephrine-stimulated cAMP synthesis, have been deduced through the study of biochemistry.

In 1897, German biochemist Eduard Buchner demonstrated that fermentation does not require intact, living yeast cells. He achieved this by extracting a substance from yeast cells, which he identified as the enzyme complex zymase.12

Buchner showed that when this cell-free extract was added to a sugar solution, the zymase catalyzed the breakdown of sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol. This discovery proved that the chemical process of fermentation is driven by the action of enzymes rather than the biological activity of the yeast organism itself, a breakthrough for which he was awarded the 1907 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.1