Methanol is produced by anaerobic bacteria and phytoplankton. [21] [22]

interstellar medium

Methanol has also been found in large quantities in star-forming regions of space and is used in astronomy as a marker for such regions. It is detected by its spectral emission lines. [twenty three]

In 2006, astronomers using the MERLIN radio telescope array at the Jodrell Bank Observatory spotted a large methanol cloud 463 terameters (288 billion miles) across space. [24][25] In 2016, astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array radio telescope detected methanol in a planet-forming disk around the young star TW Hydrae.

During embalming, the ancient Egyptians used a mixture of substances, including methanol obtained from the pyrolysis of wood. However, pure methanol was first isolated in 1661 by Robert Boyle by distilling boxwood (Boxwood). [27] It came to be known as the "pyroxylic spirit". In 1834, French chemists Jean-Baptiste Dumas and Eugene Peligot determined its elemental composition [28].

They also introduced the word "methylène" into organic chemistry, formed from the Greek methy = "alcoholic liquid" + hȳlē = "forest, wood, timber, material". "Methylene" refers to a "free radical" that contains about 14% hydrogen and contains one carbon atom. This would be CH2, but at the time it was thought that carbon had only six times the atomic mass of hydrogen, so they gave the molecular formula as CH. [28] They then called wood alcohol (l'esprit de bois) "bihydrate de méthylène" (dihydrate, because they believed the molecular formula was C4H8O4 = (CH)4(H2O)2). The term "methyl" was derived around 1840 from the reverse formation of "methylene" and was then used to describe "methanol". In 1892, the International Conference on Chemical Nomenclature shortened it to "methanol". [29] The suffix -yl, in organic chemistry, forms the name of the carbon group, from the word methyl.