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Portrait of Yehiel Gaoni
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Yehiel Gaoni

1928–2017 · Israeli · Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot

Yehiel Gaoni was an Israeli organic chemist who spent close to forty years in the Department of Molecular Chemistry and Materials Science at the Weizmann Institute, after a doctorate at the Sorbonne in 1958 and a postdoc at the University of Chicago. From 1962 he worked with Raphael Mechoulam on the chemistry of hashish; their 1964 paper reported the isolation and structure of Δ9-THC, and the 1965 paper its total synthesis. He was co-author on the identification of several other plant cannabinoids, including cannabigerol and cannabichromene and the cannabinoid acids. His later work was unrelated to cannabis, largely on bicyclobutanes, sulfolenes and 1-aminocyclobutanecarboxylic acid derivatives; he became a full professor in 1988 and retired in the 1990s.

Compounds credited overall: a handful of phytocannabinoids — THC, CBG, CBC and the cannabinoid acids — plus later work on cyclobutane amino acids

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5 credited across 1 class · 5 with a page here

  • Phytocannabinoids
  • CBG (Cannabigerol) C21H32O2 isolated it, 1964 source

    Gaoni Y, Mechoulam R, 'The structure and synthesis of cannabigerol, a new hashish constituent', Proc. Chem. Soc. 1964:82 — first report of the compound, with a synthesis in the same paper.

  • THC (Δ9-THC) C21H30O2 isolated it, 1964 source

    Gaoni Y, Mechoulam R, 'Isolation, structure and partial synthesis of an active constituent of hashish', J. Am. Chem. Soc. 86:1646 (1964) — the first isolation of pure Δ9-THC from the plant with its structure. The hashish was supplied by the Israeli police. Roger Adams had made Δ9- and Δ8-THC from cannabidiol in 1942, but not isolated the natural product.

  • CBDA C22H30O4 isolated it, 1965 source

    Mechoulam R, Gaoni Y, 'Hashish IV: the isolation and structure of cannabinolic, cannabidiolic and cannabigerolic acids', Tetrahedron 21:1223 (1965). The same paper covers cannabinolic and cannabigerolic acid, which have no area on this site.

  • THC (Δ9-THC) C21H30O2 first synthesis, 1965 source

    Total synthesis of dl-Δ1-THC, Mechoulam R & Gaoni Y, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 87:3273 (1965). A stereospecific synthesis of the (−)-enantiomers followed in 1967.

  • CBC (Cannabichromene) C21H30O2 isolated it, 1966 source

    Gaoni Y, Mechoulam R, 'Cannabichromene, a new active principle in hashish', Chem. Commun. 1966:20. Claussen et al. reported the same compound independently in 1966, so the credit is shared. Gaoni was also a co-author on the total synthesis of dl-cannabichromene (JACS, 1968).

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