Jokichi Takamine

Jokichi Takamine (born Nov. 3, 1854, Takaoka, Japan—died July 22, 1922, New York, N.Y., U.S.) was a biochemist and industrial leader whose most important achievement was the isolation of the chemical adrenalin (now called epinephrine) from the suprarenal gland (1901). This was the first pure hormone to be isolated from natural sources.

The son of a physician, Takamine graduated (1879) as a chemical engineer from the College of Science and Engineering of the Imperial University of Tokyo. The Japanese government sent him to Glasgow for postgraduate study at the university and at Anderson’s College. During vacations he visited industrial plants, observing the manufacture of soda and fertilizers. After his return to Japan, Takamine entered the Imperial Department of Agriculture and Commerce; he rose rapidly, becoming head of the department’s chemistry division. His first visit to the United States was in 1884 as a commissioner to the Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans. In 1887 Takamine left government service in order to establish his own factory, the Tokyo Artificial Fertilizer Co., which manufactured superphosphate fertilizers.

In his private laboratory, Takamine developed, from a fungus grown on rice, a starch-digesting enzyme similar to diastase; he named it Takadiastase. In 1890 he was called to the United States to devise a practical application of the enzyme for the distilling industry. At this time he took up permanent residence in the United States, establishing the laboratory at Clifton, N.J., where his pioneering research in the isolation of adrenalin was carried out. The production of Takadiastase for medicinal use was taken over by the Parke-Davis Co., with whom Takamine was associated for the remainder of his career. He maintained close ties with Japan, aiding its development of industrial dyes, aluminum fabrication, nitrogen fixation, the electric furnace, and the manufacture of Bakelite.