On the 133rd birthday of Japanese educator and biochemist Michiyo Tsujimura, Google dedicated its doodle. The Japanese chemist did groundbreaking research on green tea.
For Japanese educator & biochemist Michiyo Tsujimura, scientific advancement was her cup of tea 🍵
— Google Doodles (@GoogleDoodles) September 17, 2021
Because of her breakthrough research, we now know what compounds make green tea beneficial to human health 🫖
Discover more with #GoogleDoodle → https://t.co/X26IprmZNh pic.twitter.com/vO2iPfLOv2
Google doodle shows her studying and extracting the chemical components of green tea and a variety of research components are used to form doodle.
About Michiyo Tsujimura
Born in 1888 in present-day Okegawa, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, Michiyo Tsujimura spent her early career teaching science.
Her research career began in 1920 where she joined Hokkaido Imperial University as a laboratory assistant and analyzed the nutritional properties of Japanese silkworms. During her stint at that university, she worked in an unpaid position as the university did not accept females workers at that time.
In 1922, she joined the Medical College of Tokyo Imperial University and RIKEN in 1923 as a research student. At Tokyo Imperial University, she began researching the biochemistry of green tea alongside Dr. Umetaro Suzuki who was known for his discovery of vitamin B1. Their joint research revealed that green tea contained significant amounts of vitamin C.
In 1929, she isolated catechin and isolated tannin in 1930 which was an even more bitter compound than catechin. These findings formed the foundation for her doctoral thesis, 'On the Chemical Components of Green Tea' when she graduated as Japan’s first woman doctor of agriculture in 1932.
In 1934, she isolated gallocatechin from green tea and registered a patent on her method of extracting vitamin C crystals from plants.
Outside of her research, Dr. Tsujimura also made history as an educator when she became the first Dean of the Faculty of Home Economics at Tokyo Women’s Higher Normal School in 1950. Even after retiring from Ochanomizu University as a professor in 1955, she continued lecturing part-time until 1961.
On 1 June 1969, Michiyo Tsujimura died in Toyohashi at the age of 81. Today, a stone memorial in honour of Dr. Tsujimura’s achievements can be found in her birthplace of Okegawa City.
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