Nagai Nagayoshi

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Nagai Nagayoshi
Nagai Nagayoshi.jpg
Nagai Nagayoshi
Photo courtesy of the Matsuyama University Library Archives.
Born (1844-08-08)August 8, 1844
Myodo, Awa Province, Japan
Died Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.
Tokyo, Empire of Japan
Nationality Japanese
Occupation Organic chemist, pharmacologist
Known for discovery of ephedrine
Spouse(s) Therese Schumacher
Children Alexander Nagai

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Nagai Nagayoshi (長井 長義?, August 8, 1844 – February 10, 1929) was a notable Japanese organic chemist and pharmacologist, best known for his study of ephedrine.

Early life

Nagai was born in the Myodo District, Awa Province in what is now the Tokushima prefecture, as the son of a doctor and started studying rangaku medicine at the Dutch Medical School of Nagasaki (Igaku-Denshusho) in 1864. While in Nagasaki, he made the acquaintance of Ōkubo Toshimichi, Itō Hirobumi, and other future leaders of the Meiji government.

Career

Nagai continued his studies at Tokyo Imperial University and became the first doctor of pharmacy in Japan. He was sent under government sponsorship to Prussia in 1871 to study at the University of Berlin. He was the only civilian in a group of military students sent to study in Great Britain and France, and he traveled by way of the United States and Great Britain. While in Berlin, he resided at the home of Japanese diplomat Aoki Shūzō. He was influenced by the lectures of von Hofmann, and received a doctorate with a study on eugenol while working as an assistant at von Hofmann's laboratory. He decided to take up organic chemistry in 1873[citation needed].

Nagai returned to Japan in 1883 to take up a position at the Tokyo Imperial University, and became Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy there in 1893. His research centered on the chemical analysis of various Japanese and Chinese traditional herbal medicines.

While in Germany, Nagai married Therese Schumacher, the daughter of a wealthy lumber and mining magnate. On their return to Japan, she became a professor of German language at Japan Women's University, and was active in introducing German foods and culture to Japan. In 1923, Nagai and his wife hosted Albert Einstein and his wife during their visit to Japan[citation needed].

His son, Alexander Nagai, served as a diplomat at the Embassy of Japan in Berlin until the end of World War II[citation needed].

As first president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan (PSJ, founded in 1880); Nagai had an important impact on the propagation of chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences in an industrializing Japan.

Death

Nagai died in 1929 in Tokyo of acute pneumonia.

Statue of Nagai Nagayoshi at the PSJ HQ

Scientific contributions

References

  • Lock, Margaret. East Asian Medicine in Urban Japan: Varieties of Medical Experience. University of California Press; Reprint edition (1984). ISBN 0-520-05231-5
  • Schultes, Richard Evans, ed. Ethnobotany: The Evolution of a Discipline. Timber Press, Incorporated (2005). ISBN 0-931146-28-3
  • W Pötsch. Lexikon bedeutender Chemiker (VEB Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig, 1989) ISBN 3-8171-1055-3

External links