Eva Ekeblad
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Eva Ekeblad (1724 – 1786), nee De la Gardie, was a Swedish agronomist and scientist. Eva De la Gardie was born to of statesman count Magnus Julius De la Gardie (1668-1741) and the amateur-politician and salonist Hedvig Catharina Lilje, and sister of captain Carl Julius De la Gardie.
She was since 1740 at the age of 16 married to the statesman count Claes Claesson Ekeblad and became mother of five children. The coupple had a residence in Stockholm and an estate in Västergötland and belonged to the very highest circles of the Swedish nobility.
Ekeblad discovered how to make flour and alcohol out of potatoes and thereby made potatoes, a plant introduced in Sweden in 1658 but until then only cultivated in the greenhouses of the aristocracy, a part of the basic food supply. This greatly improved eating habits and the hunger epidemics. Previously, alcohol had been made by wheat, rye and grain, but now, more of that could be saved to make bread instead.
She also (in 1751 and 1752) discovered a method of bleaching cotton textile and yarn with soap and replacing the dangerous ingredients in the cosmetics of the time by making powder from potatoes.
She was said to have advertised the use of potatoes by using the flowers of the plant as hair ornaments.
Eva wrote to the Swedish Academy of Science about these discoveries in 1746, and in 1748 she became the first woman elected to the academy.
