Monosodium glutamate is a delicious condiment, and its main chemical component is sodium glutamate. The chemical name of glutamic acid is aminoglutaric acid, and its molecular formula is HOCC-CH2CH2CH (NH2)-(COOH) 2. It was discovered by German chemist K.H.L.Rittauson from gluten in 1866, so it was named glutamine cacid. Gluten is extracted from wheat flour, protein. 1728, Beccaria, an Italian professor of medicine and chemistry (1682- 1766) first extracted gluten from wheat flour, which was called gluten. In fact, China extracted gluten from flour much earlier than this professor. 1637 (Chongzhen in Ming Dynasty 10) Song Yingxing (1587-? In the "Overpaste" section of the second volume of the book "Heavenly Creations", it is said: "All paste is made of small flour in gluten." Refers to the tiny granular starch after gluten is "washed" by flour, which is used for cloth sizing. "Washing" means putting flour in a cloth bag and soaking it in water for kneading. The tiny particles of starch enter the water through the pores between the fibers in the bag, and the larger particles of protein remain in the bag, which is gluten. In other words, monosodium glutamate can be made from gluten extracted from flour.
Miao Ju Ikeda, Ph.D. in Chemistry, Imperial University of Tokyo (1864- 1936), extracted 0.2 g of sodium glutamate from 1908 kelp, which was found to be delicious, so he built a factory with gluten as raw material for production. In Japan, the trade name is Ajisen.
In the early 1920s, Japanese "Wei" was dumped in the southeast coast of China and all parts of Shanghai, and advertisements of "Wei" were everywhere, with a flood of rights. Wu (189 1- 1953) thinks this thing is good and the market is booming. Why can't we do it ourselves? ! So I decided to do it myself.
Wu, formerly known as Baoyuan, was born in a teacher's family in Jiading, Jiangsu. /kloc-entered Shanghai Cantonese Museum at the age of 0/0, and studied in 1906. He hopes to be a translator after graduation and studied for a year. Because of the large family, he was asked to make a living, dropped out of school and went home to work as an English teacher at Jiaqing No.1 Primary School. Later, I learned that Shanghai Ordnance Institute recruited students who worked part-time and part-time, and those with excellent grades also had scholarships, so I took the exam and entered the school to specialize in chemistry. Wu studied hard at school and became the high flyers of Ordnance School. He graduated on 19 1 1. First I worked as an intern in Shanghai Manufacturing Bureau for one year, then I went back to school as a teaching assistant and worked as a laboratory technician in Shanghai.
19 13, Wu went to Hanyang Iron Works in Hubei as an chemist, 19 17 as the director of the refractory brick factory in Hanyang Iron Works. At the same time, he also served as the chief of pharmacy department of Hanyang Arsenal System (Blasting) and the director of Chi Chang Nitrate & Alkali Company. He holds three positions at the same time, which is a young man's success. 1920 returned to Shanghai as the director of Chichang Niu Pijiao Factory.
During this period, he began to develop monosodium glutamate. The research work was carried out in Shanghai Pavilion. The so-called pavilion is a small room in the residential building in Lane, Shanghai, located in the middle of the stairs behind the residential building. He relies on some simple chemical instruments, such as alcohol lamp, reagent bottle and several test tubes. Under very simple and arduous conditions, after more than half a year's efforts, he finally figured out that the umami taste of Wei mainly came from sodium glutamate.
192 1 In the spring of, Wu got 5,000 yuan from Zhang Chu, the owner of Shanghai Jufengyuan Hotel, and rented a Shikumen house. Mr. and Mrs. Wu did it themselves, hired seven or eight workers to assist in the operation and started production. The daily output is only 16 kg (1 kg =0.453 kg), which is completely workshop-style.
Following the popular trade names such as saccharin and essence at that time, in order to promote sales, we should give the product a trade name similar to "flavor essence" and extract the name "monosodium glutamate", which is the essence of taste. Because monosodium glutamate is made of plant protein, it is a vegetarian, and it is an excellent condiment for people who believe in Buddhism and vegetarianism. However, the Buddha is in the sky, and the rare delicacy is only available in the sky, the chef in the sky-Chutian. Therefore, it was named "Chutian monosodium glutamate" and adopted the trademark "bergamot".
Zhang feels that MSG is profitable and the market is promising. He discussed with Wu about increasing capital and production in time. 1 In August, 923, the monosodium glutamate factory was formally established, and the capital was increased to 50,000 yuan, divided into 10 shares, including Wu1share. Unfortunately, Wu was unable to pay the money at that time. Zhang agreed to pay Wu a research fee of 2,000 yuan and another 3,000 yuan. At the same time, it is stipulated that Wu 1 kg of monosodium glutamate will be given a share of money in the future. Wu became a manager and technician. In winter, Xinqiao Road 10 house is rented as a rough processing factory, and the former site of Sanbei Tobacco Company on Chua Road (now Shunchang Road) is used as a fine processing factory and office. In that year, the output reached 3000 Jin, and it was awarded the Invention Award by the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce of Beiyang Government.
Chutian monosodium glutamate factory uses wheat flour as raw material to produce "Chutian monosodium glutamate". Wheat flour contains 15% protein and 70% starch, and its protein contains more gliadin and glutenin, among which glutamic acid is the most, so wheat flour is selected as raw material. Protein and starch contained in flour are separated, and a kneading machine using electricity is used. Glutamate was extracted from protein and hydrolyzed with hydrochloric acid to obtain glutamate hydrochloride. Crude glutamic acid hydrochloride was neutralized with caustic soda to obtain crude glutamic acid, which was dissolved in boiling water, decolorized with activated carbon, filtered at high temperature, cooled and crystallized to separate purified glutamic acid, and reacted with salt to obtain sodium glutamate.
In the process of producing monosodium glutamate, starch is the main by-product. Wu established a starch factory in 1926- 1927.
"Chutian monosodium glutamate" has fierce competition with Japanese "flavor". 1925, after China's * * * production party led the people of China to carry out an anti-imperialist May 30th movement, the people of the whole country set off a wave of boycotting Japanese goods, and the sales of "Chutian monosodium glutamate" increased day by day, becoming a hot-selling product among patriotic overseas Chinese in Nanyang, with the output increasing from 3000 kg in 1923 to/kloc-0. Due to the rapid development of domestic monosodium glutamate industry, the production development still cannot keep up with the market demand. At that time, Japan's "flavor" was in large stock in the hands of dealers, and there was no way to get rid of it. Chutian monosodium glutamate factory sent people to the market to bargain and modify it separately, which was urgently needed by the market as Chutian monosodium glutamate.
In order to further ensure the sales market of monosodium glutamate, Chutian monosodium glutamate factory applied for patents from Britain, the United States and France in 1926- 1927, which opened the way for China's chemical products to obtain international patents, participated in the Chicago International Expo, won the prize, and enjoyed the honor of exemption from inspection at home and abroad, and then completed the food entry hygiene inspection procedures in these countries. Wu has thus become a famous "king of monosodium glutamate" at home and abroad.
The main raw materials for monosodium glutamate production are wheat flour and hydrochloric acid. Flour is supplied by China and hydrochloric acid is imported from Japan. Wu raised 200,000 yuan to set up Tianyuan Electrochemical Factory Co., Ltd. in Zhoujiaqiao, Changning Road, Shanghai on June 1929+ 10/930, and set up Tianyuan Electrochemical Factory to electrolyze salt to produce hydrochloric acid (5).
The name of the factory "Tianyuan" means the raw materials of Chutian. Wu thought of "Tai Chi is divided into two devices" from the anode and cathode of electrochemistry, so he took Tai Chi diagram as a trademark. At that time, the scale was 2 tons of hydrochloric acid, 3 tons of bleaching powder and 4 tons of liquid alkali every day.
1934, Wu founded Tiansheng Pottery Factory. This is made of ceramics, which is used to hold hydrochloric acid and other products produced by Tianyuan Electrochemical Factory. China has a long history of producing ceramics, but chemical ceramics with acid and alkali resistance have been blank in modern China and need to be imported from abroad. During his tenure as the director of the refractory brick factory, Wu founded the first acid-resistant pottery factory in China with his experience in manufacturing silicon bricks.
The name of the pottery factory "Tiansheng" means Tianyuan Electrochemical Factory to solve the container, and also means Tianyuan prosperity.
Wu and Tiansheng Pottery Factory established a nitrogen production company in the same year, and set up a nitrogen production plant in the autumn of 1935 to synthesize ammonia by using the surplus hydrogen and nitrogen produced by Tianyuan Electrochemical Factory. In order to avoid the conflict of national industries in China, Wu He (3), who is planning to build an ammonium plant, agreed that the ammonium plant mainly produces ammonium sulfate, while the nitrogen plant is committed to nitric acid production. The groundbreaking ceremony of the factory was very grand. Chiang Kai-shek wrote an inscription "Saving the country through industry" to show his congratulations. China's first synthetic ammonia plant was highly valued by people from all walks of life. 1936, nitric acid shipped from Tian Li nitrogenous fertilizer plant sold well in the market because of its pure quality.
1936, Tianyuan, Tiansheng and the four major light and heavy chemical plants were all completed and put into operation, and achieved good development, forming a "Tian" brand group with its own system and supporting development, which made Wu's career enter its heyday.
Just as Wu's career was in full swing and developing rapidly, the Lugouqiao Incident broke out in 1937, and Japanese imperialism invaded on a large scale. Wu actively organized factories to move inward, and set up Hong Kong factories in 1938, Tianyuan Chongqing factory and Tianchuchuan factory in 1940, and Sichuan factory in 1943.
1945 September 17, on the occasion of the "Chongqing negotiations", I met with Wu, Wang and other business elites in Chongqing and called on them to make their own efforts to build China into an independent, democratic and prosperous country.
The whole country has just been liberated.1June, 950, Wu hurried back to the motherland from the United States. Premier Zhou Enlai happily said to him: "The king of monosodium glutamate is back, welcome." And hoped that he would continue to make efforts for China's new chemical industry. He has served as a member of the East China Military and Political Committee, a member of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, a member of the Central Committee of the China Democratic National Construction Association, a deputy director of the Shanghai Branch of the China Democratic National Construction Association, a member of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and a deputy director of the Supervision Committee of the Shanghai Federation of Industry and Commerce.
Chen Xinwen. Wu, a chemical giant. Dalian: Silhouette of China Chemical Industry Development (Internal Printing), 200 1.
Wu died of diabetes at the age of 62. Make a will before dying and hand over all the property of Chu Yun Foundation to the state.
China's national chemical industry started in the 1920s, and in the 1930s, it formed two pillars supporting China's national chemical industry. One is the Shanghai Chemical Industry Group founded by Wu, and the other is the Tianjin Chemical Industry Group. Known as "Southern Wu and Northern Fan", they are pioneers of national chemical industry in China and have made outstanding contributions to the establishment and development of national chemical industry in China. As one of the pillars of Wu, it started with the research and production of monosodium glutamate.
Now monosodium glutamate has been produced by microbial fermentation with starch contained in various potatoes and corn as raw materials.