Chester J. Cavallito (May 7, 1915 – March 28, 2010) was an American

organic chemist Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, J.; ...

. He was particularly known for his work on the chemistry of

garlic Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plant in the genus ''Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, Welsh onion and Chinese onion. It is native to South Asia, Central Asia and northe ...

. Beginning in 1944, with his colleagues, he reported on the isolation from crushed garlic, synthesis (from

diallyl disulfide Diallyl disulfide (DADS or 4,5-dithia-1,7-octadiene) is an organosulfur compound derived from garlic and a few other genus ''Allium'' plants. Along with diallyl trisulfide and diallyl tetrasulfide, it is one of the principal components of the dist ...

) and

antibiotic An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting pathogenic bacteria, bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the therapy, ...

activity of a compound he named

allicin Allicin is an organosulfur compound obtained from garlic, a species in the family Alliaceae. It was first isolated and studied in the laboratory by Chester J. Cavallito and John Hays Bailey in 1944. When fresh garlic is chopped or crushed, th ...

. Cavallito established that allicin was a member of a class of

organosulfur compounds Organosulfur compounds are organic compounds that contain sulfur. They are often associated with foul odors, but many of the sweetest compounds known are organosulfur derivatives, e.g., saccharin. Nature abounds with organosulfur compounds—sulfur ...

known as

thiosulfinate In organosulfur chemistry, thiosulfinate is a functional group consisting of the linkage R-S(O)-S-R (R are organic substituents). Thiolsulfinates are also named as alkanethiosulfinic (or arenethiosulfinic) acid esters. They are the first member o ...

s. He also synthesized and reported on the chemical and biological properties of a series of

s related to allicin.

Education, employment and professional activities

Cavallito earned a B.Sc. in chemistry from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and wa ...

in 1936 and a Ph.D. in organic and physiological chemistry from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pu ...

in 1940. From 1942 to 1950 Cavallito was a research group leader at

Sterling Winthrop Sterling Drug was an American global pharmaceutical company, also known as Sterling Winthrop, Inc. in its last years (after the merger with Winthrop-Stearns Inc. which itself resulted from the merger of ''Winthrop Chemical Company Inc.'' and '' ...

Research Institute in

Rensselaer, New York Rensselaer is a city in Rensselaer County, New York, United States, and is located on the east side of the Hudson River, directly opposite of Albany. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 9,210. Rensselaer is on the western border of ...

, where his research on garlic was performed. From 1966 to 1970, Cavallito was professor and chairman of medicinal chemistry in the school of pharmacy at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sys ...

(UNC). He also served as vice president and director of research at Neisler Laboratories (1952–1966) and executive vice president of scientific affairs, Ayerst Division of

American Home Products Wyeth, LLC was an American pharmaceutical company. The company was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1860 as ''John Wyeth and Brother''. It was later known, in the early 1930s, as American Home Products, before being renamed to Wyeth i ...

(1970–1978). Among his other professional activities, Cavallito was president, Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences, A.Ph.A; chairman, medicinal chemistry section of Academy of the Pharmaceutical Sciences, and secretary and chairman, division of medicinal chemistry of the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cavallito, Chester John 1915 births 2010 deaths American organic chemists Rutgers University alumni Ohio State University Graduate School alumni University of North Carolina