We know Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer and poet . He was also an amateur phytologist , and his interest and connections head to the discovery of the chemical you hunger every exclusive morning .
You ’ve see of Romantic painters and poets . Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge was , in his way , a amorous chemist . He lived in the good time period ( 1795 - 1867 ) , he hung out with artists and writers , he did work that still influence the world today ( from quinine to paper chromatography ) , and although he did n’t fail youthful , he did decease in poverty . near enough .
Also , he was a unseasoned hotshot who populate dangerously . By twenty - five he had made a name for himself by work with Atropa belladonna . He showed how belladonna unlax the muscles — his most spectacular manifestation was putting drops of belladonna in a cat ’s eyes to dilate the pupil . ( It ’s painless . Some optomitrists today use drops with belladonna excerption . ) He show this , in 1819 , to none other than Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . Goethe is a giant of literature today , but he was celebrated and revered even in his own lifetime . Goethe was also concerned in flora , and he was sufficiently pleased with the young chemist to give him thenot inexpensive natural endowment of Arabian mocha coffee java attic . Goethe hint Runge figure out what it was inside these edible bean that made hoi polloi feel awake , happy , and focused .
Runge , within a short flow of time , had come up with the answer to what made coffee so pleasant — trimethylxanthine . Because it was most easily extracted ( via chloroform ) from deep brown beans it got the common name of caffeine . When you tope it , which you certainly will , give thanks to Goethe and to Runge — with maybe a trivial gratitude leftover for the cat .
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