The roots of SGLT inhibition: Laurent-Guillaume de Koninck, Jean Servais Stas and Freiherr Josef von Mering

Excerpt

SGLT inhibitors, are contemporaneously considered a “hot topic” in the field diabetology and as an introduction, it is commonplace for presentations on this topic to start with a historical retrospect on the discovery of phlorizin and its glucosuric effect. In point of fact, it was mentioned during the presentation of a major trial during the 2017 ADA Scientific Sessions, as well as in recent publications, that phlorizin was discovered by “French” chemists. The reality, however, is that phlorozin was discovered in Belgium by Belgian researchers. Furthermore, it is often cited that Josef von Mering discovered the glucosuric effect of phlorizin. Nonetheless, what is perhaps not so widely known is the fact that Freiherr Josef von Mering had already described the glucose lowering effect of phlorozin and had postulated that the action of phlorizin occurs in the kidney—a hypothesis which was latterly proven to be correct by Oscar Minkowski. …