Mitochondria were first seen by kollicker in 1850 in muscles and called them ‘sarcosomes’ Flemming (1882) described these organelles as ‘filia’ Altmann (1890) observed these structures and named them ‘bioblasts’. Benda (1898)stained these organelles with crystal violet and renamed them ‘mitochondria’ Michaelis (1900) used janus green B as a vital stain to observe mitochondria in living cells.