The famous physician Aretaeus the Cappadocian describes gout as follows: “No other pain is stronger than this, not iron screws, not ropes, not the wound of a sword, not burning fire... The pain seizes the big toe; then the front part of the heel, on which one leans; then it comes to the arch of the foot, but the ankle swells last....” The cause of this painful disease was discovered in 1776 by the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele: it was uric acid, which crystallized in the joints in the form of needles. The definitive link between gout and uric acid was proven by studies carried out by Dr. Garrod in England. He showed that patients suffering from gout had higher uric acid levels in their blood than healthy subjects. The first treatment for gout was described by Alexander von Tralles in the sixth century BC: Colchicum autumnale was used for this purpose. Later, the active substance from this plant was structurally characterized. The structure of uric acid was elucidated by Emil Fischer (Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1902) and was not only the basis for the establishment of efficient gout therapeutics but also for the development of new types of immunosuppressants and agents for cancer therapy.