Sucrose in beet (Marggraf)
Sacarosa en la remolacha (Marggraf)
- Date
- 1747 · confidence high
- Place
- Berlin, Germany
- Credited to
- Andreas Sigismund Marggraf
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
The Berlin chemist showed in 1747 that beet contains a sugar identical to cane sugar, which he extracted with alcohol. It opened the possibility of producing sugar in cold climates without importing it.
Marggraf did not develop an industrial process; his student Achard did.
What it led to
- the first beet sugar factory (Achard, 1801)
- the European beet industry after the Continental Blockade
- reduced dependence on slave-plantation sugar