In the 1950s, kinetin was first discovered by

F. Skoog and his co-workers observed that from the internodal segments of tobacco stems the callus (a mass of undifferentiated cells) proliferated only if, in addition to auxins the nutrients medium was supplemented with one of the following: extracts of vascular tissues, yeast extract, coconut milk or DNA. Miller et al. (1955), later identified and crystallised the cytokinesis promoting active substance that they termed kinetin.