Jokichi Takamine
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Jokichi Takamine (高峰 譲吉 Takamine Jōkichi, December 22, 1854 – July 22, 1922) was a Japanese chemist.
He was born in Takaoka, Japan the son of a physician, and educated in Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo, graduating from the University of Tokyo in 1879. He did postgraduate work at University of Glasgow and Anderson College in Scotland. He returned to Japan in 1883 and joined the division of chemistry at the department of agriculture and commerce.
In 1884 he married Caroline Field Hitch, with whom he had two children. Takamine continued to work for the department of agriculture and commerce until 1887. Leaving, he founded the Tokyo Artificial Fertilizer Company, where he later isolated the enzyme Takadiastase, an enzyme of rice malt, from his research in rice fermentation for the production of sake.
In 1894 Takamine emigrated to the United States. He established his own research laboratory in New York City, but licensed the commercial production of Takadiastase. In 1901 he isolated and purified the hormone adrenaline from animal glands, becoming the first to accomplish this for a glandular hormone.
[edit] Trivia
He learned English as a child from a Dutch family in Nagasaki and so always spoke English with a Dutch accent.
Many of the beautiful cherry blossom trees in the West Potomac Park surrounding the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. were donated by the mayor of Tokyo, Yukio Ozaki and Dr. Takamine in 1912.[1]
