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Created page with "*''Birth: 1845'' *''Death: 1929'' *''Japanese'': 長井長義 ''(Nagai Nagayoshi)'' Nagai Nagayoshi was a chemist and pharmacologist, known as the first man to synth..."
*''Birth: [[1845]]''
*''Death: 1929''
*''Japanese'': [[長井]]長義 ''(Nagai Nagayoshi)''
Nagai Nagayoshi was a chemist and pharmacologist, known as the first man to synthesize methamphetamine.
Originally from [[Tokushima han|Tokushima]], he later became a professor at the College of Sciences at [[University of Tokyo|Tokyo Imperial University]], where he played a significant role in building the foundation for the teaching and research of modern medicines. He was also a founding member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan.
In his own research, Nagai devoted much efforts to attempts to isolate the efficacious compounds in traditional [[kanpo|Chinese medicinal herbs]] and treatments. It was in that vein that he isolated in [[1885]] the stimulant ephedrine from the plant ''Ephedra sinica'', one year after Sigmund Freud published a paper on the wonders of cocaine, the synthesis of which was also recently discovered at that time. In [[1893]], Nagai found a way to use this ephedrine to produce methamphetamine. In 1919, one of his students, Ogata Akira, produced a crystalline form of the substance, inventing crystal meth.
A prominent member of Japan's scientific community, Nagai is also known to have hosted Albert Einstein, who visited Japan in 1923, six years before Nagai's death.
{{stub}}
==References==
*"[http://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%95%B7%E4%BA%95%E9%95%B7%E7%BE%A9?dic=daijirin&oid=DJR_nagai_-040-_nagayosi_-01 Nagai Nagayoshi]," Daijirin, Sanseido Co Ltd.
*Benjamin Breen, "[http://theappendix.net/blog/2013/8/how-drugs-get-discovered Meiji Meth: The Deep History of Illicit Drugs]," ''The Appendix'', August 23, 2013.
[[Category:Scholars and Philosophers]]
[[Category:Meiji Period]]
*''Death: 1929''
*''Japanese'': [[長井]]長義 ''(Nagai Nagayoshi)''
Nagai Nagayoshi was a chemist and pharmacologist, known as the first man to synthesize methamphetamine.
Originally from [[Tokushima han|Tokushima]], he later became a professor at the College of Sciences at [[University of Tokyo|Tokyo Imperial University]], where he played a significant role in building the foundation for the teaching and research of modern medicines. He was also a founding member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan.
In his own research, Nagai devoted much efforts to attempts to isolate the efficacious compounds in traditional [[kanpo|Chinese medicinal herbs]] and treatments. It was in that vein that he isolated in [[1885]] the stimulant ephedrine from the plant ''Ephedra sinica'', one year after Sigmund Freud published a paper on the wonders of cocaine, the synthesis of which was also recently discovered at that time. In [[1893]], Nagai found a way to use this ephedrine to produce methamphetamine. In 1919, one of his students, Ogata Akira, produced a crystalline form of the substance, inventing crystal meth.
A prominent member of Japan's scientific community, Nagai is also known to have hosted Albert Einstein, who visited Japan in 1923, six years before Nagai's death.
{{stub}}
==References==
*"[http://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%95%B7%E4%BA%95%E9%95%B7%E7%BE%A9?dic=daijirin&oid=DJR_nagai_-040-_nagayosi_-01 Nagai Nagayoshi]," Daijirin, Sanseido Co Ltd.
*Benjamin Breen, "[http://theappendix.net/blog/2013/8/how-drugs-get-discovered Meiji Meth: The Deep History of Illicit Drugs]," ''The Appendix'', August 23, 2013.
[[Category:Scholars and Philosophers]]
[[Category:Meiji Period]]