On this day, 39 years ago, on May 18, 1986 (April 10, 1986, the lunar calendar), China organic chemist Ji Yufeng passed away. Ji Yufeng was born on December 22, 1899 in Yinxian County, Zhejiang Province. He graduated from the Department of Chemistry of Shanghai Hujiang University in 1922, and went to the United States to study at the University of Chicago. After receiving a master's degree in 1923, he returned to China and taught in the Department of Chemistry of Wuchang Normal University. In 1926, he went to the United States again and studied for a doctorate under the guidance of Professor T.B.Johnson, an organic chemist at Yale University. In 1928, he received a doctorate in philosophy from the school and returned to China. The title of his doctoral thesis was "Research on the Determination of the Structure of Pyrimidine Compounds." After returning to China, Ji Yufeng successively engaged in teaching and research work in many schools and research institutions. He served as a professor at Northeastern University (1928-1930), Xiamen University (1930), Zhejiang University (1930-1933), Guangxi University (1936-1939), Shanghai Medical College and Kunming Southwest Associated University (1939-1943), and a researcher at the Institute of Chemistry of the "Central" Research Institute (1934-1936) and the Institute of Pharmacy of the Peking Research Institute (1943-1949). After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served successively as a researcher of China Academy of Sciences (1949-1951), a researcher and director of the synthesis department of the Department of Pharmacy of the Central Research Institute of Health (predecessor of the Institute of Pharmacy of China Academy of Medical Sciences, 1952-1958), a researcher and deputy director of the Research Institute of Beijing Chemical Reagent General Factory (1958-1982), and an editorial board member of the Journal of Chemistry and Journal of Pharmacy. In 1955, he was elected as a member (academician) of the Department of Mathematics, Physics and Physics, China Academy of Sciences. Ji Yufeng's main research work includes heterocyclic compounds such as pyrimidines, thiazoles, and quinolines, chemical compositions of Chinese herbal medicines, total synthesis of vitamin B1, antimalarial drugs, anti-schistosomiasis drugs, determination methods of vitamin C and its distribution in animal and plant products. Ji Yufeng has done a lot of work on the study of selective condensation to pyrimidine rings. He has confirmed and discussed the direction of condensation to pyrimidine rings through experiments. He has studied the condensation reactions of acetylacetone, benzoylacetone and cyclic ¦Â-cyclohexanone with different aldehydes and urea under the action of catalysts. The synthesis and reaction properties of various halogenated pyrimidines were also studied. Through the study of the conversion reaction of halogenated pyrimidines, different synthetic methods of substituted pyrimidines were found. Through his research on the synthesis and reaction properties of mercaptopyrimidines, he proposed a new method to synthesize aminopyrimidines from chloropyrimidines without ammonia, or to prepare mercaptopyrimidines from halopyrimidines without using thiohydrogen. In his early years, Ji Yufeng conducted a series of research on Chinese herbal medicines when he was at the Leishi Institute of Medicine, Academia Sinica and Guangxi University. He successively separated and identified the chemical components of perilla, iris, Peucedanum, Bupleurum, Angelica macrodentatum, Epimedium macroflora, Fritillaria, Gelsemium and tobacco using classic methods. Several crystals were isolated from Angelica pubescens, and flavonoid glycosides were isolated from Epimedium. This is the first time in my country to use chemical methods to study Chinese herbal medicines. Ji Yufeng has also developed a simple and accurate new method for determining vitamin C content, which has been used to determine vitamin C content in 120 edible plant and animal products and traditional Chinese medicines, providing a large amount of valuable basic data for nutrition and physiology in my country. Ji Yufeng is a patriotic scientist. After the Pearl Harbor Incident in 1941, Shanghai fell, and the Japanese and puppet governments hired him to serve, but he resolutely refused. However, he overcame numerous difficulties and resistance and went to Chongqing alone to continue teaching at the Shanghai Medical College, which had moved to the mainland, and served as the director of the pharmacy department. He not only taught multiple courses such as organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry and physical chemistry, but also simply used waste from chemical plants to extract chemical reagents for scientific research and teaching. During his work at the Beijing Institute of Chemical Reagents, Ji Yufeng put forward many far-sighted suggestions on the institute's chemical reagent development plan, especially the development of nucleic acid bases such as pyrimidines and purines, riboses, and more than 20 basic amino acids, making contributions to the development of chemical reagents in our country. Ji Yufeng was an upright person and a strong character, and worked tirelessly to pursue the cause of science all his life. He lives a very frugal life, but he spends a lot of money to buy world-famous scientific and technological books and periodicals such as Bear Stearns Encyclopedia of Organic Chemistry, Chemical Documentation and Journal of the American Chemical Society, and values his collection of books extremely. He tried his best to buy all important new books related to his research work, so he collected a large collection of books throughout his life. In 1983, on the first anniversary of his death, his wife Yang Qunhua complied with his last wish and donated more than 3000 volumes of all scientific and technological books and periodicals he had collected throughout his life to the Xinjiang Branch of China Academy of Sciences and the Beijing Institute of Chemical Reagents, making a final contribution to supporting the cause of frontier science and the development of my country's chemical reagents.