Johann Georg Noel Dragendorff

Johann Georg Noel Dragendorff (1836 to 1898) was a German pharmacist and chemist, born in Rostock. He trained as a pharmacist at Rostock and Doberan, passed his pharmacy examination in 1856 and took his doctorate in 1861, working meanwhile as an assistant in plant analysis, plant physiology and agrochemistry. In 1862 he went to St Petersburg to edit the Pharmaceutische Zeitschrift fur Russland, and from 1864 to 1894 he directed the Institute of Pharmacy at the University of Dorpat, now Tartu, serving as vice-rector and as dean of the medical faculty. He published on forensic chemistry, pharmacognosy, food analysis, environmental chemistry, pharmacology and toxicology, and his books include a study of the chemical detection of poisons and a work on the medicinal plants of various peoples and times. His name is attached to Dragendorff reagent, a solution of potassium bismuth iodide used to show the presence of alkaloids. He received the Hanbury Medal in 1885 and died in Rostock in 1898.