He was a German pharmacist who discovered aniline, which he called ‘kvanol’, in a coal tar in 1834.
Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge was born in Billwarder, near Hamburg, 8 February 1795.
Runge studied pharmacy before leaving his hometown in 1816 for Berlin, Jena and Gottingen to study medicine.
Runge obtaining a doctorate in philosophy in 1822 for De pigmento Indico eiusque conubiis cum metallorum nonnulorum oxydis.
He began his career as a pharmacist and after a long residence in Paris, became an associate professor of technological chemistry at the University of Breslau, Germany.
Later he served in the Prussian Marine in Berlin and Oranienburg.
In 1834 he discovered carbolic acid, rosolic acid and other chemicals in the same substance. This was the beginning of coal-tar chemistry.
In 1820 he isolated an alkaloid from the coffee bean, which he dubbed ‘caffeine’ indicating something found in coffee.
Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge (1794-1867)
