[Pharmacist and chemist Henri Braconnot]

Henri Braconnot was born in Commercy in 1780. When he was 13 years old, he was bound apprentice in the pharmacy of Graux in Nancy. He remained here for two years, learning pharmacy, chemistry and botany. When the army called him, his position in Strasbourg allowed him to study. After it, he came to Paris and learned in some schools, particularly the Ecole gratuite de pharmacie. Returned in Nancy, forever, in 1802, he was then named as the chairman of the botanical garden and a member of the academy of the town, and he began his results in plant chemistry. He worked almost until his death that occurred in January 1855. Braconnot's work is essentially devoted to chemistry. His name is attached to the extractive principles of vegetables. Some orientations of his research are: plant acids, fats, extractive compounds that may have conduct him to alkaloïds, sugar obtained from saw-dust and rages, other organic plant chemicals, nitration of cellulose, and some others such as colours chemistry, hydrology, physiological chemistry, toxicology, mineralogy. He was never received as an apothecary, but pharmacy has always considered that he belonged to it.