Synthesis of amphetamine (Edeleanu)
Síntesis de la anfetamina (Edeleanu)
- Date
- 1887 · confidence high
- Place
- Berlin, Germany
- Credited to
- Lazăr Edeleanu
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
The Romanian chemist synthesised phenylisopropylamine, now called amphetamine, in his doctoral thesis at the University of Berlin. Its physiological effects were not studied for forty years.
Edeleanu worked in August Wilhelm von Hofmann's laboratory. The name 'amphetamine' would come from industry in 1927, when Gordon Alles studied its effects. Edeleanu later invented the sulphur-dioxide extraction process for refining oil (1908).
What it led to
- amphetamines as stimulants and decongestants from the 1930s
- psychotropic drugs for narcolepsy and ADHD
- derived synthetic drugs