Alexander Zaytsev
The first reported chemical synthesis of HMB was published in 1877 by the Russian chemists Michael and Alexander Zaytsev. HMB was isolated from the bark of "Erythrophleum couminga" (a Madagascan tree) in 1941 by Leopold Ružička. The earliest reported isolation of HMB as a human metabolite was by Tanaka and coworkers in 1968 from a patient with isovaleric acidemia.