Albert Niemann (chemist)
| Albert Niemann | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 20, 1834 Goslar, Kingdom of Hanover |
| Died | January 19, 1861 (aged 26) Goslar, Kingdom of Hanover |
| Nationality | German |
| Fields | Chemist |
| Alma mater | University of Göttingen |
| Doctoral advisor | Friedrich Wöhler |
| Known for | Isolating cocaine from coca leaves |
Albert Friedrich Emil Niemann (May 20, 1834 – January 19, 1861) was a German chemist. In 1859 - about the same time as Paolo Mantegazza - he isolated cocaine, and he published his finding in 1860.
Niemann was born in Goslar, then in the Kingdom of Hanover, the son of a school principal. In 1849 he began an apprenticeship at the town hall pharmacy in Göttingen, where from 1852 he was a Ph.D. student at the George August University.
In the 19th century, there was a great interest among European chemists in the effects of coca leaves discovered in Latin America. In 1855 the chemist Friedrich Gaedcke had published a treatise on an extract of the coca leaf he called erythroxylin. However, little progress was made in extracting coca's active ingredients.
Friedrich Wöhler, Ordinary Professor of Chemistry at Göttingen University, had coca leaves imported to Germany by Karl von Scherzer, a member of the Austrian Novara expedition, and he gave those leaves to Niemann, his graduate student, to analyze. In 1859, Niemann isolated cocaine from coca leaves. He extracted the primary alkaloid and named the ingredient "cocaine"–as with other alkaloids its name carried the “-ine” suffix (from Latin -ina). He wrote of the alkaloid's “colourless transparent prisms” and said that, “Its solutions have an alkaline reaction, a bitter taste, promote the flow of saliva and leave a peculiar numbness, followed by a sense of cold when applied to the tongue.” He published his finding in 1860 in his dissertation titled Über eine neue organische Base in den Cocablättern (On a New Organic Base in the Coca Leaves). This dissertation earned him his Ph.D. and was published in 1860 in the journal Archiv der Pharmazie.
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