Godfather Of Caffeine

Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge was the discoverer of caffeine and he was one of the first to isolate drug quinine from cinchona bark used in treating malaria.

Runge first called it "Kaffebase" and his discovery inspired other scientists to continue researching the active ingredient in coffee throughout the 19th Century.

Runge was born on Feb. 8, 1795. He was the son of a Lutheran pastor and began his experiments in his teenage years.

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 a poisonous plant sometimes called deadly nightshade.

Hundreds of years after the quinine discovery in fighting malaria, quinine is still used to combat the disease today. However, quinine’s discovery is often credited to Pierre Joseph Pelletier and Joseph Bienaime Caventou, who later reported their work regarding it.

During this time he invented the first coal tar dye used to dye clothes.

Runge went on to receive a doctorate from the University of Berlin and taught at the University of Breslau before leaving to work for a chemical company.