The initial organic compound synthesized artificially in a lab was_________________?
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Answer: A. Wohler
Explanation
Friedrich Wöhler successfully synthesized urea in eighteen twenty-eight using purely inorganic starting materials in his laboratory. This groundbreaking experiment disproved the prevailing vitalism theory which claimed organic compounds required a living force. By heating ammonium cyanate, he produced urea and established the foundation of modern synthetic organic chemistry. Vitalism was a nineteenth-century scientific belief that living organisms possessed a special vital force for making organic matter. Urea is an organic waste product found in the urine of mammals and plays a central role in nitrogen metabolism. Laboratory synthesis bridges the gap between inorganic chemistry and the vast complex network of carbon-based compounds.
Option B refers to Hermann Kolbe who synthesized acetic acid later on to further discredit the vitalism theory. Option C refers to Jöns Jacob Berzelius who originally formulated the influential vitalism theory of organic compounds. Option D refers to Marcellin Berthelot who synthesized many organic compounds later in the nineteenth century.
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