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Concept
Takamine Jōkichi
Summary
was a Japanese chemist. He is known for being the first to isolate epinephrine in 1901.
Takamine was born in Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture, in November 1854. His father was a doctor; his mother a member of a family of sake brewers. He spent his childhood in Kanazawa, capital of present-day Ishikawa Prefecture in central Honshū. He learned English as a child from a Dutch family in Nagasaki, and so always spoke English with a Dutch accent. He was educated in Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo, graduating from the Tokyo Imperial University in 1879. He did postgraduate work at University of Glasgow and Anderson College in Scotland until 1883.
In 1883, Takamine returned to Japan and joined the division of chemistry at the newly established Department of Agriculture and Commerce until 1887. He then founded the Tokyo Artificial Fertilizer Company, where he later isolated the enzyme takadiastase, an enzyme that catalyzes the breakdown of starch. Takamine developed his diastase from koji, a fungus used in the manufacture of soy sauce and miso. Its Latin name is Aspergillus oryzae, and it is a "designated national fungus" (kokkin) in Japan.
In 1884, Takamine went as co-commissioner of the World Cotton Centennial Exposition to New Orleans, where he met Lafcadio Hearn and 18 year old Caroline Field Hitch, his future wife. In 1885, he became the temporary Chief of the Japanese Patent Office and helped to lay the foundations of patent administration. He founded he Tokyo Artificial Fertilizer Company, importing large amounts of phosphate
from Charleston, South Carolina. In 1890, he emigrated with his wife and two sons to Chicago.
He established his own research laboratory in New York City but licensed the exclusive production rights for takadiastase to one of the largest US pharmaceutical companies, Parke-Davis. This turned out to be a shrewd move as he became a millionaire in a relatively short time and by the early 20th century was estimated to be worth $30 million.
Official source
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