What is the History of Hyaluronic Acid?
In 1934, Karl Meyer and his colleague John Palmer isolated a previously unknown chemical substance from the vitreous body of cows eyes. They found that the substance contained two sugar molecules, one of which was uronic acid. As a result, they proposed for convenience, the name hyaluronic acid, from hyaloid (vitreous) + uronic acid. At the time, they did not know that the substance which they had discovered would prove to be one of the most interesting and useful natural macromolecules. Hyaluronic acid (HA) was first used commercially in 1942 when Endre Balazs applied for a patent to use it as a substitute for egg white in bakery products. He went on to become the leading expert on Hyaluronic Acid, and made the majority of discoveries concerning Hyaluronic Acid during the next 50 years.
