Pyman, Frank Lee (1882–1944)

English organic chemist who worked on pharmaceuticals, particularly studying the properties of glyoxalines (glyoxal is ethanedial).

Pyman was born in Malvern, Worcestershire, and studied at Manchester and in Switzerland at Zürich Polytechnic. On his return to Britain, Pyman took a job in the Experimental Department of the Wellcome Chemical Works in Dartford, Kent. He was professor at Manchester and head of the Department of Applied Chemistry at the College of Technology 1919–27 and then became director of research at the Boots Pure Drug Company's laboratories at Nottingham.

The glyoxalines are cyclic amidines with therapeutic properties, and Pyman studied especially the relationship between their chemical constitution and their physiological action. Study of the constitution of the anhydro-bases made from glycoside revealed the existence of a substance whose molecules contained a ten-membered heterocyclic ring. He also examined alkaloids, and became the first person to isolate a natural substance containing an asymmetric nitrogen atom.

During World War I he worked on the preparation of drugs needed to treat British troops overseas.