Who invented saccharin?

The sugar that people often eat in daily life is extracted from plants such as sugarcane and beet. There are some substances in the plant kingdom that are sweeter than sucrose. Stevia rebaudiana originated in South America is 200 ~ 300 times sweeter than sucrose. The sweetness of West African bamboo spatula fruit in African tropical forest is 3000 times sweeter than sucrose. There is also a vine of Stephania tetrandra in Africa, the fruit is 90000 times sweeter than sucrose. However, these substances are thousands of times sweeter than sucrose, which we seldom see. What we usually use is saccharin, which is 500 times sweeter than sucrose. From a chemical point of view, sugar and saccharin are completely irrelevant. Only one thing is the same, that is, they are all sweet. How was saccharin discovered? /kloc-one afternoon in 0/879, in the laboratory of the University of Baltimore, the Russian chemist Farid Berger was happily shuttling between bottles and cans. Today, he is in a particularly good mood. First, the synthesis experiment of aromatic sulfonic acid compounds he is doing is progressing smoothly and will have results soon. Secondly, today is his birthday, and his wife Natasha prepared dinner for him to get together. Twilight arrival, the laboratory gradually darkened. When the flask made a sound, farid Bigger watched intently under the gas lamp. The tumbling solution has completely forgotten the birthday dinner in the evening. Finally, the experiment has a clue. He happily picked up the pencil on the desk and recorded the experimental results in the experimental notebook. At this moment, the wall clock on the wall rang. "Oh, it's already 6 o'clock." Only then did he remember the time for dinner. He hurriedly put a pencil in his pocket, put on his coat and ran home. The wife and husband are busy together. The husband sets the glasses and tableware, and the wife brings plates of dishes. Dinner started in a pleasant atmosphere. Farid Bigger forked a steak and stuffed it into his mouth. Suddenly, he stopped chewing and asked with a little surprise, "Natasha, did you put sugar in your fried steak today?" "No, I've never heard of adding sugar to steak. However, "the wife also said strangely," there is something wrong with the food today. Just try it. This salad is also sweet. " After dinner, farid Berger was still thinking about this strange sweet steak and sweet salad. Out of the habit of scientists, he wants to find out the reason. After checking the kitchen utensils, he fixed his suspicious eyes on the tableware. He licked the edge of the plate, thought for a moment, then licked his hand, then immediately took out the pencil in his pocket and licked it with his tongue. "The problem is pencils, pencils!" Farid Bigger roared, "Look, Natasha, all the tableware I touched with my hands is sweet. This sweetness comes from my pencil." To be sure, the sweetness on the pencil was acquired in the laboratory. It seems that there must be a strange and especially sweet substance in the laboratory. I'm going to find out. "farid Berger rushed to the laboratory, lit the gas lamp, and carefully checked the experimental instruments one by one. Finally, he found that the sweetness came from a chemical called o- sulfonimide sodium. This accidental discovery opened a new road of invention for farid Berg. Since then, he has concentrated all his energy on studying the substances extracted from this coal tar. He extracted toluene from black, sticky and smelly coal tar, treated it with sulfuric acid sulfonation, phosphorus pentachloride and ammonia water, then oxidized it with potassium permanganate, and finally obtained a particularly sweet white crystal through crystallization dehydration. He called it "saccharin" and measured that it was 500 times sweeter than sucrose. Farid Berg immediately announced his invention and obtained a patent in the United States. 1886, the chemist moved to Germany, where he established the world's first factory to extract saccharin from coal tar. Saccharin began to break into people's lives.