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The History of Glucose

Glucose is a carbohydrate responsible for the sweet taste of many sugars, including some kinds of fruit. Glucose is also present in the human body, and people living with diabetes must monitor the levels of glucose in their blood. Our understanding of what exactly glucose is and what role it plays in our daily lives has been developing for centuries.

  1. What is Glucose?

    • Glucose is a carbohydrate, and more specifically, a monosaccharide (a simple type of sugar). It is denoted as C6H12O6. It is found in fruits, plants, the human body, some forms of bacteria, and some fungi. The earliest known reference to "grape sugar" aka glucose comes from Moorish writings that date back to the 1100s.

    Marggraf

    • In 1747, Andreas Marggraf, a pharmacist living in Germany, had already isolated sucrose from sugar beets. He then isolated glucose for the first time from raisins. However, he did not name this isolated sugar, and instead simply referred to it in his notes as "eine Art Zucke" meaning, "a type of sugar." Marggraf's work paved the way for Constantine Kirchoff in 1811, who was able to produce a sugar syrup from isolated glucose.

    Dumas

    • in 1838, the French chemist Jean Baptiste Andre Dumas (1800-1884) named the substance isolated by Marggraf nearly 100 years earlier. He called it "glucose", which is derived from the Greek "glycos", meaning sweet. Dumas was later recognized for this and other contributions as a pioneer in the field of organic chemistry.

    Fischer

    • German scientist Emil Fischer won the 1902 Nobel Prize in Chemistry due in part to his research into glucose. Because glucose is needed for so many of the human body's daily processes, understanding glucose was a key to understanding organic chemistry. The synthesis of glucose allowed Fischer to organize the stereochemical configuration of all the known sugars.

    Development of Blood Glucose Readers

    • The world's first blood glucose meter was called the Ames Reflectance Meter, patented on September 14, 1971. The inventor was Anton Hubert (Tom) Clemens, who invented the meter to read a pre-existing type of test strip, known as Dextrostix. Dextrostix, in turn, were the brainchild of inventor Ernie Adams. The ARM was not a portable meter, and was meant to be used in a doctor's office.

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