BioConcepts

anabolismAnabolismus (ger.)

• The ‘ascending’ process in metabolism, in which simpler substances, as nutritive matter, are transformed into more complex ones, and thus built up into the living structure of the organism; constructive metabolism: opp. to catabolism. (OED 2011)
  category metabolism see also assimilation

  1885

  We may picture to ourselves this total change which we denote by the term ›metabolism‹ as consisting on the one hand of a downward series of changes (katabolic changes), a stair of many steps, in which more complex bodies are broken down with the setting free of energy into simpler and simpler waste bodies, and on the other hand of an upward series of changes (anabolic changes), also a stair of many steps, by which the dead food, of varying simplicity or complexity, is, with the further assumption of energy, built up into more and more complex bodies [...]
  Constructive Metabolism (Anabolism)

  Foster, M. (1885). Physiology. In: Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed.), vol. 19, 8-64: 13; 49.

  1886

  metabolism includes the two opposite processes of destruction and construction, or as they may be called of katabolism and anabolism

  Gaskell, W.H. (1886). On the structure, distribution and function of the nerves which innervate the visceral and vascular systems. J. Physiol. 7, 1-80: 46.

  1982

  anabolism That part of metabolism involving the manufacture of complex substances from simpler substrates with the consequent utilization of energy; anabolic; cf. catabolism.

  Lincoln, R.J., Boxshall, G.A. & Clark, P.F. (1982). A Dictionary of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics: 14.