Graebe, Carl

Carl Graebe, (born Feb. 24, 1841, Frankfurt am Main [Germany]—died Jan. 19, 1927, Frankfurt am Main, Ger.), German organic chemist who, assisted by Carl Liebermann, synthesized (1868) the orange-red dye alizarin, which quickly supplanted the natural dye madder in the textile industry.

A graduate of the University of Heidelberg, Graebe was a lecturer-assistant to Robert Wilhelm Bunsen. Later, as a student of Adolf von Baeyer at the University of Berlin, Graebe was directed to attempt the synthesis of alizarin. He showed it to be derived from a coal tar substance, anthracene, and prepared it from anthraquinone, a compound related to anthracene. He secured a patent for the process in June 1869. Graebe subsequently was a professor at the universities of Königsberg (1870–77) and Geneva (1878–1906). He introduced the chemical prefixes ortho-, meta-, and para- to indicate the structures of the three possible isomers of compounds in which two chemical groups are attached to the benzene ring.