Google Doodle celebrates Japanese green tea researcher Michiyo Tsujimura's 133rd birthday

News Express: Japanese teacher and chemist Michiyo Tsujimura 133 years old and Google honors her with a special Doodle. If you enjoy green tea, you know that you don't taste it for too long or it tastes bitter. Tsujimura should thank you for that information.  Tsujimura, born in 1888, was the first woman in Japan to receive a doctorate in agriculture. 

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She was taught by another female scientist - biologist Kono Yasui, who was the first Japanese woman to receive a doctorate in science. During her career, she was not easily accepted as a female scientist. However, she came to be recognized when she and her colleague Seitaro Miura discovered that green tea contained vitamin C in 1924. 

They published an article entitled "On Vitamin C in Green Tea" which led to an increase in exports of green tea to North America. She continued her research into green tea and in 1929, she isolated catechin - an ingredient that makes tea bitter. The following year she split the tannin, which is a very bitter compound. These two discoveries were the basis of her theory, "On the Chemical Components of Green Tea." In 1934, she separated Gallo catechin from green tea and in 1935, she registered the patent for her method of extracting vitamin C crystals from plants. 

She made history as a teacher when she became the first Dean of the Faculty of Home Economics at Tokyo Women’s Higher Normal School in 1950. She retired in 1955 but continued teaching part-time. Tsujimura died in Toyohashi on 1st June, 1969 at the age of 80. A monument in her honor was found at her birthplace in Okegawa City.