Who Is Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge ?

Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge

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 tire 

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 

He also invented paper chromatography, a method for separating chemicals which is widely used in teaching labs 

Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge, who is celebrated in today’s Google doodle, was the discoverer of caffeine and the first person to isolate quinine, but his contribution to chemistry is often overlooked

Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge was born near Hamburg on 8 February 1794. From a young age, Runge conducted chemical experiments, serendipitously identifying the mydriatic (pupil dilating) effects of belladonna (deadly nightshade) extract

While working as an apprentice in his uncle’s pharmacy, he got a drop of henbane juice in his eye, and noticed that his pupil dilated. Based on experiments on a cat’s eye, he went on to write a dissertation on the toxic effects of atropine, a chemical found in plants like henbane and deadly nightshade. Atropine blocks receptors for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine which is released by the nervous system to activate muscles

Runge studied chemistry at the University of Jena, Germany, under J. W. Döbereiner, an adviser to the writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. His fellow students called him “Dr Gift” – the German word for poison. Döbereiner arranged for Runge to perform a demonstration of atropine’s ability to make cats’ pupils dilate for Goethe. Goethe was suitably impressed, and at the end of their meeting he presented Runge with a packet of coffee beans, suggesting that their chemical components might be worth investigating. Runge studied the beans, and later that year, he discovered caffeine

In 1819, while still a student, Runge made another remarkable discovery for which he is seldom credited, isolating quinine from cinchona bark. The discovery of quinine, the first effective antimalarial compound, is usually attributed to Pierre Joseph Pelletier and Joseph Bienaimé Caventou, who reported their work a year later.

At the time, students in Germany had to do their oral doctoral examination in Latin, but Runge only went to elementary school and had not learned any other languages. He got through the exam by blurting out stock phrases such as “practica est multiplex” (practice is varied); “post nubila phoebus” (after the clouds, the sun); and “errare est humanum” (to err is human).

In his later years, Runge, a lifelong bachelor, directed his chemical knowledge towards household problems, such as removing stains, making wines from fruits, canning meats and vegetables, and showing off his culinary skill at dinner parties