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6.
Synthesis of Organic Germanium Compound
To invent is
not the conquest of nature. Man creates nothing, he merely uncovers
things which were
heretofore unknown.
 The
synthesis of organic germanium has fulfilled a vision I have had since
youth of doing something
good for mankind. However, it was not an easy task. Research on the
organic germanium
compound progressed smoothly at first. Working with germanium in
organic form was not
entirely new to me for I had previously met with considerable Success
by extracting germanium
from coal in the early 1950's. I had also succeeded in obtaining large
quantities from
liquefied coal gas. Previous research activities had been directed
primarily at obtaining an inorganic germanium of a high purity for use by the electronics industry.
To extract germanium from coal, I developed a process whereby the
organic germanium in coal is
removed at high temperature in a carbonization furnace. It is then
liquefied by adjusting
the pH and burned to eliminate miscellaneous organics. Afterwards, it
is chlorianted and this
chlorinated organic germanium is converted by hydrolysis into
germanium oxide, a white
powder, further reduced by hydrogen. Increased purity is achieved by
zone melting, and finally
a lump of cylindrical shaped silver-gray single crystals is produced.
The principal object of my research with germanium until that point
had been to convert the organic
germanium obtained from coal into an inorganic substance for the
electronics industry.
I was now faced with doing the reverse in converting inorganic
germanium into an organic substance if
it was to be of use in the field of biochemistry.
I first thought that
in order to obtain a
germanium compound which is biochemically active, the synthetic
germanium must be made with
an affinity to living cells. My research staff and I studied the
possibility of compounding
germanium with either amino acid or nucleic acid. We attacked these
and other possibilities
from every angle, but our attempts failed.
At the time, publications
on germanium in Japanese
or any other language were virtually nonexistent and ten years went by
almost completely
unnoticed while we were groping in the dark. In the meantime, the once
flourishing coal
industry had reached its zenith and began to decline from around 1959.
With the decline, the
royalties and research grants which I had been receiving from coal
mining companies for my
discoveries decreased sharply.
 Mv personal finances were also nearly
exhausted, and it became
increasingly difficult to run a research laboratory I often say,
"Poverty and affliction are the
mother of invention." Once I discussed this matter with Dr. Reppe,
a German scientist who had been
awarded the Nobel prize for his work in the
chemistry of acetylene. He said, " Invention is made up of 90 %
perspiration and 10 % gray matter.
Whilst trying to combat and resolve these difficulties I realized the
danger of losing my creative
spirit. I began to read fervently From Religion to Science by Bertrand
Russell ; Einstein and
the Order of Space; Zen and the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel;
Dogen (about a Zen
work), and several other books by Japanese authors. I made notes of
the
 thoughts of
great men and these supplied the thread that kept me from succumbing completely.
The saying which sticks uppermost in mind, however, is "God may
give you a chestnut but
won't crack it and take it out of the shell for you."
In November, 1967, a member of my research staff who stayed on, walked
into the room holding a
test tube of white powder. Raising it slowly, and with an expression
on his face which
radiated the whole room, he uttered the words I had been waiting ten
years to hear. "Dr.
Asai, the water-soluble organic germanium compound has at last been
synthesized." For the first
time in my life I shed tears of joy in deep silence as a man in
ecstasy. They were tears of almost
religious exaltation. The event proved to me that all of man's
struggles are not in vain. The
organic germanium compound synthesized on that day has changed my
life, and as I hope you
shall see, has done something good for everyone who has come in
contact with it.
This
web site is a breath
of fresh air in a world of pollution.
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