Robiquet, Pierre-Jean

Pierre-Jean Robiquet (1780-1840), French apothecary, discovers codeine. Codeine is an alkaloid found in opium that is now used in prescription pain relievers and cough medicines. 

This discovery was received with great perplexity morphine has an alkaline reaction towards litmus paper. Up to that time, chemicals found in plants (in this case the poppy) had exhibited acidic reaction, and the scientific world was doubtful. Pierre Jean Robiquet (1780-1840) performed new experiments in Paris in order to check Sertumer s results. Gay-Lussac accepted the revolutionary idea, following which alkaline drugs could be found in plants. All alkaline substances isolated in plants were to be given a name with the suffix -ine (Wilhelm Meissner, 1818) in order to recall the basic reaction of all these drugs. At that time, a whole new era in pharmaceutical chemistry was beginning. 

In 1834, codeine was isolated from opium by Pierre Jean Robiquet (1780-1840). One year later, Pierre-Joseph Pelletier (1788-1842) and M. Thiboumery discovered thebaine (named after the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes). In 1848, at the University of Giessen, papaverine was extracted from poppy waste by Georg Merck (1825-1873), the son of Heinrich Emanuel Merck. In 1870, Augustus Matthiessen (1831-1870) and Charles R. A. Wright (1844-1894) recognised that codeine is the monomethyl ether of morphine. After the selective methylation of morphine for the preparation of codeine had failed, Felix Hoffmann (1868-1946) tried out in 1897 a selective acetylation, in analogy to the synthesis of aspirin from salicylic acid. [91]... 

Louis-NIcolas Vauquelin (1763-18 29) was a multifaceted scientist He also discovered chromium In a lead ore from Siberia, and beryllium in beryl. In 1806, along with Pierre-Jean Robiquet (1780-1840), he isolated the first amino acid, asparagine, from asparagus. 

The active ingredient that makes tea and coffee valuable to humans is caffeine. Caffeine is an alkaloid, a class of naturally occurring compounds containing nitrogen and having the properties of an organic amine base (alkaline, hence, alkaloid). Tea and coffee are not the only plant sources of caffeine. Others include kola nuts, mate leaves, guarana seeds, and, in small amount, cocoa beans. The pure alkaloid was first isolated from coffee in 1821 by the French chemist Pierre Jean Robiquet. 

Codeine (Pierre-Jean Robiquet) French chemist Robiquet isolates codeine from opium. Because of the small amount found in nature, most codeine is synthesized from morphine. 

French chemists Louis-Nicholas Vauquelin and Pierre-Jean Robiquet isolate asparagines, the first amino acid to be discovered. 

Pierre Jean Robiquet (Rennes, 13 January 1780-Paris, 29 April 1840) was an apothecary and a professor in the Paris ficole superieure de Pharmacie. He discovered asparagine, glycyrrhizin in liquorice, narcotine, caffeine independently of Pelletier and Caventou (see p. 244), alizarin and purpurin in madder, orcinol in lichens, codeine, and rufigallic acid (hexahydro qran-thraquinone) by heating gallic acid with concentrated sulphuric acid. He investigated carbon disulphide, prepared pure baryta and nickel, investigated cantharides and kermes, and published fiirther papers on madder, orcin, and opium. 

Actually, this reaction is based on the Pechmann findings from 1884 [208], However, in much earlier investigation from 1839, the French chemist Pierre-Jean Robiquet (1780-1840) observed that on heating sulfuric acid with citric acid, the oxidation is more complete, to give the mixture of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Reaction of citric acid with sulfuric acid is also of interest by considering the combustion of citric acid [209] and the preparation of aconitic acid, by heating both of them at 140-145 °C [210]. 

Jean Jacques Colin (Riom, Puy de Dome, 16 December 1784-Lavaine, Puy de Dome, 9 March 1865), who collaborated with Robiquet, was professor in Dijon and the St.-Cyr Military Academy. He published on fermentation, vegetable colours, etc. Pierre Joseph Pelletier (Paris 22 March 1788-19 July 1842), second son of Bertrand Pelletier (see Vol. Ill, p. 566), was a Paris apothecary who taught in the ficole de Pharmacie. Jean Bienaime Caventou (St. Omer, 30 June 1795-Paris, 5 May 1877), a Paris apothecary and professor of toxicology in the ficole de Pharmacie, also worked on calculi. ... 

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