Georg Christian Wittstein (25 January 1810, in

Hann. Münden Hann. Münden (short for Hannoversch Münden) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. Münden lies in the district of Göttingen at the confluence of the Fulda and Werra rivers, which join to form the Weser. It has about 24,000 inhabitants (2013). I ...

– 1 June 1887, in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

) was a German pharmaceutical

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

. He trained as a pharmacist in

Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the largest town in population between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district () of Minden-Lübbecke, situated in the cultural region ...

, then worked as a pharmacy assistant in

Clausthal Clausthal-Zellerfeld () is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located in the southwestern part of the Harz mountains. Its population is approximately 15,000. The town hosts the Clausthal University of Technology. The health resort is locat ...

Güstrow Güstrow (; ) is a town in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in north-eastern Germany. It is capital of the Rostock (district), Rostock district; Rostock itself is a district-free city and regiopolis. It has a population of 28,999 (2020) and is the sevent ...

und

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

. In 1840 he received his doctorate from the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

, where he worked for several years as an assistant at the pharmaceutical institute. In 1851–53 he taught classes at the technical school in

Ansbach Ansbach ( , ; ) is a city in the Germany, German state of Bavaria. It is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk, administrative region of Mittelfranken, Middle Franconia. Ansbach is southwest of Nuremberg and north of Munich, on the river Fränk ...

, and afterwards spent many years as director of a private school for chemistry in Munich (1853–79).BHL
Taxonomic literature : a selective guide to botanical publications The plant genus ''

Wittsteinia ''Wittsteinia'' is a small genus of flowering plants in the family Alseuosmiaceae. The genus was first formally described by botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in ''Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae'' in 1861. The name honours Dr Georg Christian Wi ...

'' (family

Alseuosmiaceae Alseuosmiaceae is a plant family of the order Asterales found in Australia, New Caledonia, and New Zealand. They are shrubs with leaves arranged in spirals or whorls about the stem. The flowers are solitary or borne in raceme or fascicle inflor ...

) was named in his honor by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Victoria, Australia ...

Selected works

* ''Anleitung zur Darstellung und Prüfung chemischer und pharmaceutischer Präparate'' (2nd edition, 1851) – Instructions for presentation and examination of chemical and pharmaceutical preparations. * ''Etymologisch-botanisches Handwörterbuch'' (2nd edition, 1856) –

Etymological Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

-botanical dictionary. * ''Taschenbuch der Geheimmittellehre'', 1867 – Paperback of nostrums.
''The organic constituents of plants and vegetable substances and their chemical analysis''
1878 (by Ferdinand von Mueller; English translation of Wittstein's ''Anleitung zur chemischen Analyse von Pflanzentheilen auf ihre organischen Bestandtheile''). * ''Die Naturgeschichte des Cajus Plinius Secundus'', 1881–82 – Natural history of

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

. * ''Handwörterbuch der Pharmakognosie des Pflanzenreichs'' – Dictionary of

pharmacognosy Pharmacognosy is the interdisciplinary scientific study of natural drugs and bioactive compounds from plants, animals, and minerals—originally focused on identifying crude drugs but now expanded to molecular, chemical, ecological, and medicin ...

of the plant kingdom, 1882.Most widely held works by Georg Christian Wittstein
WorldCat Identities

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wittstein, Georg Christian 1810 births 1887 deaths People from Hann. Münden Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni German pharmacists 19th-century German chemists 19th-century German botanists