Google Doodle honours the Japanese agricultural scientist and biochemist Michiyo Tsujimura on her 133rd birth anniversary. She became the first woman in Japan to receive the doctorate degree.
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| Google honours Dr. Michiyo Tsujimura through doodle (Pic:-Google) |
Google Doodle honours the japanese agricultural scientist and biochemist Michiyo Tsujimura on her 133rd birth anniversary. She was the researcher of nutritional ingredients of green tea and also the famous educator.
Michiyo Tsujimura was born on September 17, 1888 in Okegawa, Saitama Prefecture in Japan. She graduated in 1913 and became teacher at Yokohama high school for women in Kanagawa Prefecture.
She returned to Saitama Prefecture in 1917 to teach at Saitama Women’s Normal School. In 1920, she joined Hokkaido Imperial University as a laboratory assistant which was her dream.
When female students were not accepted, she worked in an unpaid situation at Food nutritional laboratory of the University’s Agricultural Chemistry department where she researched nutrition of silkworms.
In 1922, she transferred to Medical College of Tokyo Imperial University, the laboratory of which had destroyed in 1923 due to Great Kanto earthquake.
Then, she transferred to RIKEN. In 1924, Dr. Tsujimura discovered Vitamin C in green tea alongside Dr. Umetaro Suzuki who was famous for discovery of Vitamin B1.
Tsujimura isolated the flavonoid catechin from green tea in 1929 and in the next year she extracted tannin in crystal form from green tea.
Dr. Tsujimura’s thesis titled ‘On the chemical components of Green tea’ earned her a doctorate in agriculture from Tokyo Imperial University in 1932 and she became the first woman in Japan to receive the Doctorate degree.
She also isolated gallocatechin from green tea in 1934 and registered patent of her method of work on green tea in 1935.
Besides agricultural scientist, Dr. Tsujimura also worked as educator in Ochanomizu University and in Tokyo Women’s Higher Normal School.
In 1956, Michiyo Tsujimura was awarded the Japan prize of Agricultural science for her research on Green tea.
She died on June 1, 1969 in Toyohashi at the age of 81. Dr. Tsujimura’s stone memorial can be seen in her birthplace of Okegawa city.