Anton Köllisch (16 March 1888 – September 1916) was a German chemist who, whilst working at Darmstadt for pharmaceutical giant Merck, first described the synthesis of the chemical MDMA.
Life and work
In 1911, Köllisch published his doctoral dissertation on the topic of indole synthesis from hydrazones under Otto Diels at the University of Berlin.
While at Merck, Dr Köllisch was involved in investigating syntheses for methylhydrastinine and hydrastinine. A procedural patent was filed on Christmas Eve 1912 relating to these syntheses, which mentioned MDMA without name as a chemical intermediate.
He was killed in the First World War.
References
- ^ Freudenmann, Roland W.; Oxler, Florian; Bernschneider-Reif, Sabine (2006-09-01). "The origin of MDMA (ecstasy) revisited: the true story reconstructed from the original documents". Addiction. 101 (9): 1241–1245. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2006.01511.x. ISSN 0965-2140. PMID 16911722.
- Köllisch: Zur Kenntnis des Diacetyls. I. Über die Brauchbarkeit der Diacetylphenylhydrazone für Kondensationen. II. Über Versuche zur Ueberführung des Diacetyls in eine Ketotetrose, Inaugural-Dissertation, Berlin: E. Ebering 1911 Hochspringen↑
- Diels, Otto; Köllisch, Anton (1911-01-01). "Zur Kenntnis des Diacetyls: Über die Diacetyl-monophenylhydrazone und ihre Verwendbarkeit für Kondensationen". Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft. 44 (1): 263–268. doi:10.1002/cber.19110440140. ISSN 1099-0682.
Bibliography
- Germany, Kaiserliches Patentamt, Patentschrift Nr 274350, http://mdma.net/merck/mdma-patent1.html
- Benzenhöfer, U; Passie, T (January 2006). "The early history of Ecstasy". Nervenarzt. 77 (1): 95–6, 98–9. doi:10.1007/s00115-005-2001-y. PMID 16397805.
- Adam, David. Truth about ecstasy's unlikely trip from lab to dance floor: Pharmaceutical company unravels drug's chequered past, Guardian Unlimited, 2006-08-18.
- Freudenmann, R. W.; et al. (September 2006). "The origin of MDMA (ecstasy) revisited: the true story reconstructed from the original documents" (PDF). Addiction. 101 (9): 1241–1245. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2006.01511.x. PMID 16911722.