Master of Pharmacy Wilhelm Grining and his pharmaceutical laboratory

Very little is known about the history of pharmaceutical industry in Latvia, especially about the history of small pharmaceutical enterprises in Riga at the turn of 19-20th centuries. The laboratory of Wilhelm Grining, Master of Pharmacy, (established in 1899) became well known because of its product Liquor Ferri albuminati Grining. The liquor was used for treatment of anemia and became very popular in the whole Russian empire. The owner of the laboratory Wilhelm Grining was a very erudite man and also a good businessman. He was a son of a pharmacist and has been acquainted with apothecary's practice and specificity of the work of the owner of a pharmacy since his childhood. Wilhelm Grining was particularly interested in proteins and started to carry out scientific research both in the fields of chemistry and pharmacy. He participated with his reports in the congresses of Russian Pharmacy Society and published his works in the journal of Russian Pharmacy. Besides all this W. Grining is believed to be the author of the concoction of curative herbs "Trejos devynerios". Biography of W. Grining, as well as the products produced by his pharmaceutical laboratory, was explored using materials from the archive of Latvian State history and 19th century's German literature of pharmaceutical history.