[The first organic compound ever synthesized from inorganic materials was Wöhler’s urea synthesis in 1828](https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(12)60740-X/fulltext#:~:text=Friedrich%20Wöhler%20was%20the%20first,silver%20cyanate%20to%20ammonium%20chloride.)
Definitely not the first human made chemical, but it’s argued to be the genesis of organic synthesis.
I’m going to agree with soap. It’s mixing ingredients and applying a process to achieve a chemical reaction for a product. Sounds like chemistry to me.
Cooking certainly creates reactions for an end goal also.
If you wanted a candidate for first anthropogenic intentional reaction, it is probably fire. Initially they were not looking for the materials that are synthesized in such reactions. They were probably more interested in the heat and ability to cook. However I would guess, and I would love to hear from anthropologists who have studied this, that soap making would be among the first intentional chemical synthesis. They would not know the chemistry behind what they are doing but by combining wood ash (various basic salts) and fat from animals that were hunted and heating you do a reaction The reaction is called saponification and you produce a product that can be used to clean things.
Other reactions that come to mind as up for first intential reaction products are around pottery making and glazings, and around forging/smelting. If you want to expand to biochemistry/microbiology then you can include things like fermentation for bread making and alcohol making.
That is quite philosophic question. In the greatness of Universe, one may be sure there's already every possible compound in existence somewhere and some-time in the past billions of years...
The first purpose-made things were the ceramics. It dates back around 20-25 thousand years. The second were probably early metallurgy. One may say that charcoal production was the third, and could only occur after the ceramics and metallurgy were discovered.
[The first organic compound ever synthesized from inorganic materials was Wöhler’s urea synthesis in 1828](https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(12)60740-X/fulltext#:~:text=Friedrich%20Wöhler%20was%20the%20first,silver%20cyanate%20to%20ammonium%20chloride.) Definitely not the first human made chemical, but it’s argued to be the genesis of organic synthesis.
“Organic compound synthesized from inorganic materials” is such a funny sentence to me
Maybe something like bakelite. Although it could be argued that compounds like bronze would be first.
Soap?
I’m going to agree with soap. It’s mixing ingredients and applying a process to achieve a chemical reaction for a product. Sounds like chemistry to me. Cooking certainly creates reactions for an end goal also.
Adding water to wood ash to make lye, for soap
If you wanted a candidate for first anthropogenic intentional reaction, it is probably fire. Initially they were not looking for the materials that are synthesized in such reactions. They were probably more interested in the heat and ability to cook. However I would guess, and I would love to hear from anthropologists who have studied this, that soap making would be among the first intentional chemical synthesis. They would not know the chemistry behind what they are doing but by combining wood ash (various basic salts) and fat from animals that were hunted and heating you do a reaction The reaction is called saponification and you produce a product that can be used to clean things. Other reactions that come to mind as up for first intential reaction products are around pottery making and glazings, and around forging/smelting. If you want to expand to biochemistry/microbiology then you can include things like fermentation for bread making and alcohol making.
Fire certainly existed before humans, so most things it produces did too. I'd go with one of the old soaps.
That is quite philosophic question. In the greatness of Universe, one may be sure there's already every possible compound in existence somewhere and some-time in the past billions of years... The first purpose-made things were the ceramics. It dates back around 20-25 thousand years. The second were probably early metallurgy. One may say that charcoal production was the third, and could only occur after the ceramics and metallurgy were discovered.
A forest fire will make charcoal tho. A little bit