Google honours Japanese biochemist Michiyo Tsujimura with doodle on her 133rd birth anniversary

Google, on Friday, paid tribute to Japanese educator Michiyo Tsujimura with a doodle on her 133rd birth anniversary.

If you love sipping on a cup of hot green tea, and often turn to it for its nutritional benefits, you have the biochemist - who spent her early career teaching science - to thank.

Born on this day in 1888 in Okegawa, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, Tsujimura's groundbreaking research provided insights into the nutritional benefits of green tea.


Tsujimura began researching the biochemistry of green tea alongside Dr. Umetaro Suzuki, famed for his discovery of vitamin B1, at the Tokyo Imperial University. Their joint research led to the discovery of Vitamin C in green tea.

"In 1929, she isolated catechin—a bitter ingredient of tea. Then, the next year she isolated tannin, an even more bitter compound. These findings formed the foundation for her doctoral thesis, “On the Chemical Components of Green Tea” when she graduated as Japan’s first woman doctor of agriculture in 1932," Google said in a blog post.

Prior to joining the Tokyo Imperial University, Tsujimura - chasing her dream of becoming a scientific researcher - was analysing the nutritional properties of Japanese silkworms at the Hokkaido Imperial University in 1920.

Tsujimura also made history as an educator when she became the first Dean of the Faculty of Home Economics at Tokyo Women’s Higher Normal School in 1950.

A stone memorial honouring her achievements was installed in her birthplace of Okegawa City.