Born: 8th of February 1794, Hamburg, Germany
Died: 25 March 1867, Oranienburg, Germany
Education: Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Jena
Runge identified the mydriatic effects of belladonna extract from the plant deadly nightshade, became the first person to isolate caffeine from coffee beans, and discovered the first coal tar dye known as aniline blue, along with a number of other coal tar products and a large number of substances that derive from coal tar: paper chromatography, pyrrole, chinoline, phenol, thymol found in oil of thyme, and extracted from Thymus vulgaris (common thyme) and atropine. Atropine is a 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.
NOTE: A mydriatic is an agent that induces dilation of the pupil. Drugs such as tropicamide are used in medicine to permit examination of the retina and other deep structures of the eye, and also to reduce painful ciliary muscle spasm.
