Aniline Germany. Today, the name of BASF, originally "Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik" (English: Baden Aniline and Soda Factory), now the largest chemical supplier, echoes the legacy of the synthetic dye industry, built via aniline dyes and extended via the related azo dyes. The first azo dye was aniline yellow. In the late 19th century, aniline emerged as an analgesic drug, its cardiac-suppressive side effects countered with caffeine. During the first decade of the 20th century, while trying to modify synthetic dyes to treat African sleeping sickness, Paul Ehrlich – who had coined the term "chemotherapy" for his "magic bullet" approach to
Aniline is hypergolic, igniting on contact between fuel and oxidizer. It is also dense, and can be stored for extended periods. Aniline was first isolated in 1826 by Otto Unverdorben by destructive distillation of indigo. He called it "Crystallin". In 1834, Friedlieb Runge isolated a substance from coal tar that turned a beautiful blue color when treated with chloride of lime. He named it "kyanol" or "cyanol". In 1840, Carl Julius Fritzsche (1808–1871) treated indigo with caustic potash and obtained an oil that he named "aniline", after an indigo-yielding plant, anil ("Indigofera suffruticosa"). In 1842, Nikolay Nikolaevich Zinin reduced nitrobenzene and