Michiyo Tsujimura 133rd Birthday
Google is honouring the Japanese educator and biochemist Michiyo Tsujimura with a special Doodle in her 133rd birth anniversary.
Japan- Born in 1888, Tsujimura was the first woman in Japan to receive a doctoral degree in agriculture. She was mentored by another great female scientist – biologist Kono Yasui, who was the first Japanese woman to receive a doctoral degree in science.
During the course of her work, she was not readily accepted as a female scientist.
However, she first got recognition when she along with her colleague Seitaro Miura discovered that green tea had vitamin C in 1924. They published an article titled “On Vitamin C in Green Tea” which lead to an increase in the exporting of green tea to North America.
She continued her research on green tea and in 1929, she isolated catechin – an ingredient that makes the tea bitter.
The next year she isolated tannin, an even more bitter compound.
These two findings became the foundation of her thesis, “On the Chemical Components of Green Tea.”
In 1934, she isolate gallocatechin from green tea and in 1935, she registered a patent on her method of extracting vitamin C crystals from plants.
