Nagai Nagayoshi

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Nagai Nagayoshi

Nagai Nagayoshi ( Japanese : 長 井 長 義 ; born August 8, 1844 in Myōdō County , Awa Province ; † February 10, 1929 in Tokyo , Japan ) was a Japanese organic chemist and pharmacologist . Most famous were his studies on ephedrine .

Early life

Nagai was in the district Myodo the province of Awa (now Tokushima Prefecture born) son of a doctor and began in 1864 to study rangaku - medicine (Western medicine) at the Dutch medical school in Nagasaki ( 医学伝習所 , Igaku Denshūsho ; forerunner of the medical faculty the Nagasaki University ). During his stay in Nagasaki he made the acquaintance of Ōkubo Toshimichi , Itō Hirobumi and other future leaders of the government in Meiji .

Career

Stays abroad

Nagai continued his studies at Tokyo University and received his first PhD in pharmacy in Japan. With financial support from the government, he was sent to Prussia in 1871 to study at the University of Berlin . He was the only civilian in a group of military students sent to Britain and France to study. He also traveled to the USA . During his time in Berlin , he lived in the house of the Japanese diplomat Aoki Shūzō . He was significantly influenced by the teachings of August Wilhelm von Hofmann and received a doctorate with a thesis on eugenol as an assistant in the Hofmanns laboratory. In 1873 he decided to start working in organic chemistry.

Research and work in Japan

Nagai returned to Japan in 1883 for a position at the University of Tokyo, where he became professor of chemistry and pharmacy in 1893 . His research focused on the chemical analysis of various methods of traditional Japanese and Chinese herbal medicine .

family

During his time in Germany, Nagai married Therese Schumacher, the daughter of a wealthy timber and mining magnate. When they returned to Japan together, they received a professorship in the German language at the Japanese Women's University . There she was particularly keen to spread German cuisine and culture in Japan. In 1923, Nagai and his wife took Albert Einstein and his wife into their home when they were in Japan. Nagai's son Alexander Nagai served as a diplomat in the Japanese embassy in Berlin until the end of World War II .

Professional success

As the first president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan ( English for Nihon Yakugakukai , "Japanese Pharmaceutical Society") Nagai had a major influence on the spread of chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences during Japanese industrialization . In 1885 he succeeded in isolating ephedrine from the sea ​​beast for the first time by identifying the substance as the active component of the plant. In 1893 he synthesized methamphetamine from ephedrine, which could later be synthesized in 1919 in crystalline form by Ogata Akira . In 1902 he isolated Rotenone from the tuba root , in 1929 he succeeded in the synthesis and structural elucidation of ephedrine.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pharmaceutical Society of Japan

literature

Web links

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Nagai is the family name, Nagayoshi the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Nagai, Nagayoshi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 長 井 長 義 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese chemist
DATE OF BIRTH August 8, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH Myōdō-gun (Tokushima) , Awa Province
DATE OF DEATH February 10, 1929
Place of death Tokyo