Who is Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge? Know all about German analytical chemist
Sanjay Sharma | Updated: Feb 8, 2019, 14:17 IST
Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge. (Getty Images) NEW DELHI: You are in office and working on some important project which you need to submit urgently, but feeling sleepy or facing dizziness. What you do? You stand up from your seat, take a walk and go to the coffee vending machine, prepare a good cup of coffee for yourself. Yes, you know drinking a cup of coffee will alert your mind and you will be able to concentrate on your work or be more focused to your studies.
Almost everyone knows Coffee contains an element known as caffeine. Caffeine works as a central nervous system stimulant. When caffeine reaches your brain it alerts your nervous system resulting you feel more awake and less tired.
Do you know who told us that Coffee has caffeine? Yes, we are talking about Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge. Runge is known for identifying caffeine, the psychoactive drug present in coffee beans. His other inventions include Phenol, Aniline.
Phenol is used in the operation theaters as antiseptics while aniline is used in industries as indigo and in drugs. Your jeans colour comes from aniline only.
Also when a patient's mind stops working, a phenol injection is administered. Runge, who born in Germany in 1795, invented Phenol injection.
Because of his interest in chemistry, from an early age, he began conducting experiments as a teenager. During one such experiment, Runge accidentally splashed a drop of belladonna extract in his eye, taking note of its pupil-dilating effects.
Ten years later, while studying under renowned chemist and inventor Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner at the University of Jena, Runge was asked to reproduce belladonna's effects as part of a demonstration. Impressed by the 25-year-old chemist, Goethe handed Runge a bag of rare coffee beans and suggested he analyze their chemical makeup. Shortly thereafter, Runge isolated the active ingredient we know today as caffeine!
Runge completed his doctorate from the University of Berlin and then started teaching at University of Breslau until 1831 when he left academia to take a position at a chemical company. He is also known for inventing first coal tar dye and a related process for dyeing clothes. Some of his contributions include considered an originator of paper chromatography, being one of the first scientists to isolate quinine and even devising a method for extracting sugar from beet juice.
Today is Runge's 225th birth anniversary, and search engine giant Google is celebrating it with a doodle.
Almost everyone knows Coffee contains an element known as caffeine. Caffeine works as a central nervous system stimulant. When caffeine reaches your brain it alerts your nervous system resulting you feel more awake and less tired.
Do you know who told us that Coffee has caffeine? Yes, we are talking about Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge. Runge is known for identifying caffeine, the psychoactive drug present in coffee beans. His other inventions include Phenol, Aniline.
Phenol is used in the operation theaters as antiseptics while aniline is used in industries as indigo and in drugs. Your jeans colour comes from aniline only.
Also when a patient's mind stops working, a phenol injection is administered. Runge, who born in Germany in 1795, invented Phenol injection.
Because of his interest in chemistry, from an early age, he began conducting experiments as a teenager. During one such experiment, Runge accidentally splashed a drop of belladonna extract in his eye, taking note of its pupil-dilating effects.
Ten years later, while studying under renowned chemist and inventor Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner at the University of Jena, Runge was asked to reproduce belladonna's effects as part of a demonstration. Impressed by the 25-year-old chemist, Goethe handed Runge a bag of rare coffee beans and suggested he analyze their chemical makeup. Shortly thereafter, Runge isolated the active ingredient we know today as caffeine!
Runge completed his doctorate from the University of Berlin and then started teaching at University of Breslau until 1831 when he left academia to take a position at a chemical company. He is also known for inventing first coal tar dye and a related process for dyeing clothes. Some of his contributions include considered an originator of paper chromatography, being one of the first scientists to isolate quinine and even devising a method for extracting sugar from beet juice.
Today is Runge's 225th birth anniversary, and search engine giant Google is celebrating it with a doodle.
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