Rudolph Brandes (18 October 1795 – 3 December 1842) was a German apothecary and chemist who served as the founding editor of the journal '' Archiv des Pharmazie'' from 1822. He also took an interest in meteorology and collaborated with Johann Wolfgant von Goethe and

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, natural history, naturalist, List of explorers, explorer, and proponent of Romanticism, Romantic philosophy and Romanticism ...

Life and work

Brandes was born in Salzuflen, the son of pharmacist Johann Gottlieb (1751–1816) and Friederike née Nolte. His father held license for their pharmacy in Salzuflen from 1792 and the pharmacy still exists. After studies at Osnabrück and Erfurt and he went to the

University of Halle Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (), also referred to as MLU, is a public research university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg. It is the largest and oldest university in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. MLU offers German and i ...

where he received a doctorate in 1817 for a dissertation titled ''Dissertatio de Strontiane mineralogico-chemica'' guided by Dr Dobereiner from Jena. His father died on October 16, 1816, and the son returned to take over his father's pharmacy. Brandes worked initially with Bucholz and after his death in 1818, he continued to work on plant compounds. He used his analytical chemistry skills to purify and characterize a number of chemical compounds including

delphinine Delphinine is a toxic diterpenoid alkaloid found in plants from the ''Delphinium'' (larkspur) and '' Atragene'' (a clematis) genera, both in the family ''Ranunculaceae''. Delphinine is the principal alkaloid found in '' Delphinium staphisagria'' s ...

(1819),

atropine Atropine is a tropane alkaloid and anticholinergic medication used to treat certain types of nerve agent and pesticide poisonings as well as some types of slow heart rate, and to decrease saliva production during surgery. It is typically give ...

(1822),

hyoscyamine Hyoscyamine (also known as daturine or duboisine) is a naturally occurring tropane alkaloid and plant toxin. It is a secondary metabolite found in certain plants of the family Solanaceae, including Hyoscyamus niger, henbane, Mandragora officina ...

, and

acrolein Acrolein (systematic name: propenal) is the simplest unsaturated aldehyde. It is a colorless liquid with a foul and acrid aroma. The smell of burnt fat (as when cooking oil is heated to its smoke point) is caused by glycerol in the burning fat ...

(1838). He travelled to visit pharmacists associations in France and on one visit met Alexander von Humboldt and they corresponded with Goethe (and met him in Weimaer in 1828) on meteorology and drew weather maps. Brandes took an interest in the composition of mineral springs in Europe. In 1820 he founded the group Apothekerverein im nördlichen Teutschland along with August Peter Julius Du Mênil, Ernst Witting, and Friedrich Wilhelm Beissenhirtz, which started publishing the ''Archiv der Pharmazie'', a publication that continues to be published today. The journal was merged with the ''

Liebigs Annalen ''Justus Liebig's Annalen der Chemie'' (often cited as ''Liebigs Annalen'') was one of the oldest and historically most important journals in the field of organic chemistry worldwide. It was established in 1832 and edited by Justus von Liebig w ...

'' in 1832, though due to disagreements with

Justus von Liebig Justus ''Freiherr'' von Liebig (12 May 1803 – 18 April 1873) was a Germans, German scientist who made major contributions to the theory, practice, and pedagogy of chemistry, as well as to agricultural and biology, biological chemistry; he is ...

it started being published independently in 1935; the journal would undergo several changes in name in the following 200 years of its existence. He also established a pharmacists' association in northern Germany that he oversaw until his death. The plant genus ''Brandesia'' was named in his honour but is now a synonym of ''

Alternanthera ''Alternanthera'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Amaranthaceae. It is a widespread genus with most species occurring in the tropics, tropical Americas,Sánchez-Del Pino, I., et al. (2012)Molecular phylogenetics of ''Alternanthera'' ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brandes, Rudolph German chemists 1795 births 1842 deaths