Samuel Baup: Contributions about iodine, alkaloids, and vegetable substances.

Samuel Baup (1791-1862), a Swiss pharmacist, understood the medical importance of iodine and its derivatives and prepared, for the first time, iodized potassium iodide starting from the reaction of iodine with iron. The resulting iodized iodine was then reacted with potassium carbonate or bicarbonate. His work on alkaloids led to the description of the properties of quinine supersulfate, the synthesis and properties of cinchona supersulfate, quinic acid, and a large number of new quinates and aconitates. Baup separated and identified the acids produced by the pyrolysis of citric acid and those present in rosin, and demonstrated the existence of several sulfates of cinchona and quinine. The pyrolysis of citric acid led to the synthesis of the new acid, citricic acid. He also extracted a variety of new substances from plants, for example, abietic and pinic acids from rosin, breine from the resin of Parkinsonia praecox, solanine from potatoes, and elemin from the resin of Amyris elemifera. He also carried extensive work on the determination of better values of the atomic mass of a variety of elements, particularly carbon, calcium and gold, and the molecular mass of important compounds such as water, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]