Anselme Payne discovers the first enzyme, diastase,…

Anselme Payne discovers the first enzyme, diastase, in 1833, heralding the dawn of biochemistry.

He is especially famous also for his works on cellulose.

At the age of twenty, Payne had become manager of the family borax-refining factory, where he has developed a process for synthesizing borax from soda and boric acid, has also invented new processes for refining sugar, a decolorimeter, a way to refine starch and alcohol from potatoes, and a method for determination of nitrogen.