Urea or carbide was first discovered in human urine by H.M. Rouelle in the year 1773. Friedrich Wohler synthesised it in 1828 during an attempt to make ammonium cyanate, as a part of his ongoing study of cyanates. On treating silver cyanate with ammonium chloride solution, he obtained a white crystalline material which proved identical to urea obtained from urine.
Urea became the first organic compound to be synthesised from inorganic starting materials. Wohler’s synthesis also marked the beginning of organic chemistry, the first in-vitro synthesis of a chemical compound otherwise produced only by living systems.
Urea is a normal component of blood and many tissues.
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