Other Research, Investigations and Discoveries
In parallel, Theodore Gobley developed a number of additional threads of research of a more mainstream type:
In cooperation with a French doctor, member of the Academie de Medecine, Jean-Louis-Marie Poiseuille, he published some results on urea in blood and urine.
In liaison with his commitment in public health matters and institutions, he involved himself in various studies on toxics, human nutrition and health, and the safety of industrial processes: thus he successively investigated toxins in toadstools (Recherches chimiques sur les champignons vénéneux, 1856), medicinal real or supposed properties of diverse plants, herbs and preparations, toxicity of lead in widespread tins used for cooking utensils, poisonous effects of rye.
In the tradition of the methods of Robiquet, from the natural vanilla fruit, he obtained in 1858 the very first samples of pure vanillin, its active flavoring principle. Gobley lived just long enough to see this breakthrough bring about the advent of artificial industrial vanillin synthesis, in a process based on glycosides extracted from the sap of pine trees (1874), opening the path to the extraordinary expansion of the use of that very popular flavour. Incidentally that also brought about the complete collapse of the growing of natural vanilla and the related industry, but that was probably not intended by Gobley.
Read more about this topic: Theodore Nicolas Gobley
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