Nadezhda Olimpievna Ziber-Shumova is an early Russian chemist, known for authoring or co-authoring more pre-1901 papers surrounding the chemical sciences than any other woman.
Ziber-Shumova’s journey in chemistry took off in 1877, when she joined the research group of Marceli Nencki (1847-1901), who was head of the biochemical department at Bern University. Nencki was a Polish chemist and doctor, renowned for his work in the chemical approach to the study of microorganisms. His main interests surrounded urea synthesis and chemical breakdowns of enzymatic processes in the intestine.
From the late 1870s to around the beginning of the 20th century, Ziber-Shumova authored and co-authored more than 40 papers. These papers included topics such as in vivo oxidation, bacterial fermentation and decomposition processes, enzyme studies, and sugar hydrolysis. She also helped Nencki with his creation of the “Nencki reaction,” which is essentially the zinc chloride-catalyzed acylation of phenols.
In addition to these papers, Ziber-Shumova worked jointly with Nencki on finding the constitution of hemin, a blood pigment. This was part of a long investigation into the degradation products of hemin. Hemin is derived from red blood cells and is an iron-containing porphyrin. A porphyrin is a large ring molecule that is constructed with four pyrroles. Each pyrrole contains four carbons and one nitrogen.
While Ziber-Shumova worked extensively on this project, the cholera epidemic of 1892 led her to shift her focus to investigating the chemical composition of pine pitch. Pine pitch is a thick, gooey substance that comes from pine trees. Interestingly, it has antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties, leading Ziber-Shumova to investigate its disinfectant properties.
Ziber-Shumova continued working and publishing up until at least World War I. These later investigations included looking into the lipids present in lung tissue as well as a number of enzyme studies.