Vladimir Palladin

PALLADIN, Vladimir Ivanovich (1859-1922), an eminent Russian plant physiologist. He graduated from the natural science department of Moscow University in 1883. Palladin's first work ("On the internal structure and method of thickening of the cell wall and starch grain") was completed while he was still a student (in 1883). Upon graduating from the university, he was retained at Timiryazev's department and began research on plant respiration, which became the main theme of all his scientific work. Palladin's scientific and pedagogical career: in 1886, he became professor of botany at the Institute of Agriculture and Forestry in New Alexandria; in 1889, professor of the department of plant anatomy and physiology at Kharkov University; and in 1897, at Warsaw University. In Warsaw, Palladin held the position of director of the Pomological Garden and professor of botany at the Polytechnic Institute. In 1901, Palladin became professor of plant anatomy and physiology at St. Petersburg University and at the Higher Women's (Bestuzhev) Courses. In 1906, he was elected a corresponding member, and in 1914, a full member of the Academy of Sciences. After the October Revolution, Palladin moved to the Crimea, where he remained under the White government, holding a chair at Simferopol University. In 1921, after the restoration of Soviet power in the Crimea, Palladin returned to Leningrad and worked at the Academy of Sciences. Palladin is the creator of the theory explaining the mechanism of enzymatic processes in metabolism, primarily in plant respiration. Based on the fact that most oxidation processes in living organisms are accompanied simultaneously by reduction processes, Palladin formulated a coherent theory on the role of enzymes in oxidation-reduction processes. When oxidation occurs at the expense of the oxygen of water, hydrogen is liberated from it, the acceptor of which, according to Palladin's theory, is the respiratory pigment. Upon attaching hydrogen, the pigment turns into chromogen. In the presence of oxidase enzymes, atmospheric oxygen removes hydrogen from the chromogen, forming water, while the chromogen, freed from hydrogen, turns back into the respiratory pigment and is again capable of being a hydrogen acceptor, and so on. This theory was the first to link respiration processes with enzymatic ones. Wieland's oxidation theory, which is now generally accepted, is only a further development of Palladin's theory. He published over 120 scientific works in various Russian and foreign journals. His textbook "Plant Physiology" (1st ed., St. Petersburg, 1891; 10th ed., Moscow-Leningrad, 1924) has been translated into German, French, and English. The textbook "Plant Anatomy" (1st ed., St. Petersburg, 1896; 7th ed., Moscow-Leningrad, 1924) is valuable because all its sections are imbued with a physiological and ecological viewpoint. Furthermore, Palladin wrote a general course in botany, a textbook on plant morphology and systematics, and a number of other textbooks and popular books.