| |
The Swiss chemist, Albert Hofmann, who discovered LSD, has died at the age of 102. His death was confirmed by the website of Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. He had a heart-attack at his home on Tuesday as a result of which he died.
Hofmann's connection with LSD began way back in the 1930s when he started studying ergot, which is a common name for a fungus that grows on rye, barley and certain other plants. He also recognized the ingredients of peyote mushrooms and ololiuqui, a Mexican plant. Hofmann also help develop atleast three non-psychotropic compounds that later became very famous in the field of medicine.
But what Albert Hofmann will always be remembered for is his discovery of an experimental compound called Lysergic Acid Diethylamide or LSD. He was a very gifted chemist who, during the 1930s worked in the Basel research centre of Sandoz Laboratories, which is now known as Novartis. At that time, researchers had found out the main ingredient of ergot, a chemical called the lysergic acid. What Hofmann did was, he devised a technique to make a series of compounds of obtained from lysergic acid, called amides and started to look for compounds that could be medically used.
LSD-25 or LSD, synthesized by Hofmann was the 25th compound that he combined. Because LSD had a similar chemical structure to a drug called Coramine, he hoped that it would act as a stimulant for the respiratory systems. But after he tested it on animals, it did not show any activity, although the animals became restless after it was given to them. Hence, it was abandoned.
During the 1930s, Hofmann found out at least three organic compounds that became drugs. These were Methergine, which was used to stop the bleeding after birth; Hydergine, which improved the circulation of blood in the limbs and also improved the intelligence level in the elderly; and Dihydergot which was used to stabilize the circulation of blood and used to control blood pressure.
