Friedrich Sertürner
German pharmacist (1783–1841)
Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Sertürner (German pronunciation: [ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈʔaːdam ˈzɛʁtʏʁnɐ]; 19 June 1783 – 20 February 1841) was a German pharmacist and a pioneer of alkaloid chemistry. He is best known for his discovery of morphine, which he isolated from opium in 1804, and for conducting tests, including on himself, to evaluate its physiological effects.
Biography
Sertürner was born, the fourth of six children, to Joseph Simon Serdinier and Marie Therese Brockmann on 19 June 1783, in Neuhaus, Holy Roman Empire (now part of Paderborn). The family may have had origins in Sardinia. His father called himself an architectus, serving surveyor and engineer to the prince bishop. After his father died, he became a pharmacist's apprentice at the Cramersche Hofapotheke in Paderborn. He completed the apprenticeship in four years and passed the qualifying examination on 2 August 1803.
Sertürner worked on the isolation of morphine from opium from 1804. He called the isolated alkaloid "morphium" after the Greek god of dreams, Morpheus. He published a comprehensive paper on its isolation, crystallization, crystal structure, and pharmacological properties, which he studied first in stray dogs and then in self-experiments.
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