Arthur de Ramon Penfold (4 August 1890 – 16 June 1980) was an Australian chemist and museum director. He is best known today for his work on the essential oils of Australian plants, especially

tea tree oil Tea tree oil, also known as melaleuca oil, is an essential oil with a fresh, camphoraceous odour and a colour that ranges from pale yellow to nearly colourless and clear. It is derived from the leaves of the tea tree, '' Melaleuca alternif ...

Early life

Penfold was born in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, New South Wales, the oldest of four sons of David de Ramon Penfold (1864-1901), a clerk, and his wife Elizabeth (Emanuel) Penfold (1866-1937). His father's death when Penfold was eleven years old forced him to leave school at fourteen to work as an office boy at a paint company. He went on to work at another paint company, becoming an accountant there in 1908.

Phytochemistry

However, Penfold was curious about the technology of paints and started taking evening classes in chemistry at

Sydney Technical College The Sydney Technical College, now part of TAFE NSW, is a technical school established in 1878, that superseded the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts. The college is one of Australia's oldest technical education institutions. History The Sydney M ...

. He was inspired by the lectures of

Henry George Smith Henry George Smith (26 July 1852 – 19 September 1924) was an Australian chemist whose pioneering work on the chemistry of the essential oils of the Australian flora achieved worldwide recognition. Smith was born at Littlebourne, Kent, Engla ...

and became interested in plant extracts and essential oils, as Smith was. In 1915 he became a research chemist and assistant plant manager for the

eucalyptus oil Eucalyptus oil is the generic name for distilled oil from the leaves of ''Eucalyptus'', a genus of the plant family Myrtaceae, mostly native to Australia but cultivated worldwide. Eucalyptus oil has a history of wide application, as a pharmace ...

distillers Gillard Gordon Ltd. In 1919 he became Smith's assistant at the Technological Museum in Sydney, and a year later became the museum's economic chemist on Smith's retirement. Penfold's work in

phytochemistry Phytochemistry is the study of phytochemicals, which are chemicals derived from plants. Phytochemists strive to describe the structures of the large number of secondary metabolites found in plants, the functions of these compounds in human and ...

soon gained world-wide recognition. By 1921 he had demonstrated the molecular structure of

piperitone Piperitone is a natural monoterpene ketone which is a component of some essential oils. Both stereoisomers, the D-form and the L-form, are known. The D-form has a peppermint-like aroma and has been isolated from the oils of plants from the gene ...

and how

menthol Menthol is an organic compound, specifically a Monoterpene, monoterpenoid, that occurs naturally in the oils of several plants in the Mentha, mint family, such as Mentha arvensis, corn mint and peppermint. It is a white or clear waxy crystallin ...

and

thymol Thymol (also known as 2-isopropyl-5-methylphenol, IPMP), , is a toxic monoterpenoid phenol derivative of ''p''-Cymene, isomeric with carvacrol. It occurs naturally in the oil of thyme, and it is extracted from ''Thymus vulgaris'' (common thy ...

could be produced from it. In all he published about a hundred research papers, many with fellow phytochemists Frank Richard Morrison and J. L. Willis. Penfold's work testing a number of essential oils produced from Australian plants in the 1920s led him to suggest the commercial production of tea tree oil, as it seemed to have antiseptic properties.

Museum work

In 1927 Penfold was appointed curator and in 1948 director of the Technological Museum. Penfold's interest in plastics led to a 1934 Plastics Industry Exhibition, a joint project with the Sydney Technical College. On a 1938 grant from the

Carnegie Corporation of New York The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Since its founding, the Carnegie Corporation has endowed or othe ...

he travelled to study the practices of American and European museums. He introduced

fluorescent lighting A fluorescent lamp, or fluorescent tube, is a low-pressure mercury-vapor gas-discharge lamp that uses fluorescence to produce visible light. An electric current in the gas excites mercury vapor, to produce ultraviolet and make a phosphor ...

of the museum's exhibits in the 1930s and opened the first museum

planetarium A planetarium (: planetariums or planetaria) is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetariums is ...

in Australia at the museum in 1950. In 1945 legislation placed the museum under a trust, a measure Penfold had worked for.

Other work

Penfold was active in scientific societies in Australia. He was a council member and in 1935 president of the

Royal Society of New South Wales The Royal Society of New South Wales is a learned society based in Sydney, Australia. The Governor of New South Wales is the vice-regal patron of the Society. It is the oldest learned society in the Southern Hemisphere. The Society traces its ...

, and a founder and the first secretary-treasurer of the Art Galleries and Museums Association of Australia and New Zealand. During World War II he served on various government scientific advisory committees and visited North America in 1945 to investigate recent advances in plastics. Following his retirement from the museum in 1955 he went to work for Monsanto Chemicals (Australia) Ltd., a plastics manufacturer. He became a life member and the first technical secretary of the Plastics Institute of Australia.

Honours

He was given the H. G. Smith Memorial Medal in 1934 by the

Royal Australian Chemical Institute The Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) is both the qualifying body in Australia for professional chemists and a learned society promoting the science and practice of chemistry in all its branches. The RACI hosts conferences, seminars and ...

, the medal of the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1951, and the Fritzsche Award from the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...

in 1954.

Personal life

Penfold married Eunice Gilbert Gardner (died 1957) on 17 August 1915; they had one daughter, Dulcie Joy Penfold (1917-2011). On 18 June 1959 Penfold married Lorna Mae Gardner, his first wife's sister. He died in

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

on 16 June 1980. Dulcie Penfold rose to level of Director at the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

and received an MBE in 1976 for her service there.https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/penfold-dulcie-joy-14829 "Dulcie Joy Penfold", Obituaries Australia

Publications

* ''Guide to the extraction of eucalyptus oil in the field'' (with F. R. Morrison) - 1922 * ''Australian tea trees of economic value'' (with F. R. Morrison) - 1929 * ''Eucalyptus: The Essence of Australia'' - 1930 * ''Grass Tree Resin'' - 1931 * ''Commercial eucalyptus oils'' - 1933 * ''Tung oil (Chinese wood oil) from Australian grown trees of Aleurites fordii (Hemsley) : with a note on A. montana'' (with F. R. Morrison) - 1934 * ''The volatile oils of the Australian flora'' - 1950 * ''Plastics and synthetic fibres'' - 1956 * ''The Eucalypts: Botany, Chemistry, Cultivation and Utilization (with J. L. Willis)'' - 1961

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Penfold, Arthur de Ramon 1890 births 1980 deaths 20th-century Australian chemists Botanists active in Australia Chemists from Sydney