Anton Köllisch Explained

Anton Köllisch (16 March 1888 – September 1916) was a German chemist who, whilst working at Darmstadt for pharmaceutical giant Merck, first described the synthesis of the chemical MDMA.^[1]

Life and work

In 1911, Köllisch published his doctoral dissertation on the topic of indole synthesis from hydrazones under Otto Diels at the University of Berlin.^{[2] [3]}

While at Merck, Dr Köllisch was involved in investigating syntheses for methylhydrastinine and hydrastinine. A procedural patent was filed on Christmas Eve 1912 relating to these syntheses, which mentioned MDMA without name as a chemical intermediate.

He was killed in the First World War.

References

1. Freudenmann. Roland W.. Oxler. Florian. Bernschneider-Reif. Sabine. 2006-09-01. The origin of MDMA (ecstasy) revisited: the true story reconstructed from the original documents. Addiction. 101. 9. 1241–1245. 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2006.01511.x. 0965-2140. 16911722. free.
2. Köllisch: Zur Kenntnis des Diacetyls. I. Über die Brauchbarkeit der Diacetylphenylhydrazone für Kondensationen. II. Über Versuche zur Ueberführung des Diacetyls in eine Ketotetrose, Inaugural-Dissertation, Berlin: E. Ebering 1911

   Hochspringen↑

3. Diels. Otto. Köllisch. Anton. 1911-01-01. Zur Kenntnis des Diacetyls: Über die Diacetyl-monophenylhydrazone und ihre Verwendbarkeit für Kondensationen. Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft. en. 44. 1. 263–268. 10.1002/cber.19110440140. 1099-0682.

Bibliography

• Germany, Kaiserliches Patentamt, Patentschrift Nr 274350, http://mdma.net/merck/mdma-patent1.html
• 16397805 . 10.1007/s00115-005-2001-y . 77 . 1 . The early history of Ecstasy . January 2006 . Nervenarzt . 95–6, 98–9 . Benzenhöfer . U . Passie . T.
• Adam, David. Truth about ecstasy's unlikely trip from lab to dance floor: Pharmaceutical company unravels drug's chequered past, Guardian Unlimited, 2006-08-18.
• Freudenmann . R. W. . etal . The origin of MDMA (ecstasy) revisited: the true story reconstructed from the original documents . Addiction . 101 . 9. 1241–1245 . 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2006.01511.x . 16911722 . September 2006.