[Antoine Augustin Parmentier (1737-1813): military pharmacist, humanist and scholar]

From "Frison" pharmacy of his district, Sainte Croix square in Montdidier, where he learned the trade of a pharmacist when he was 15 years old, to the General Inspectorate of the health service of Army responsability he helds from the 1st Germinal, Year IV until his death, Antoine Augustin Parmentier was both an humanist and anerudite scholar even if often, posterity and legend reduce his image only to that of"the inventor" of the most common Solanaceae. His work, more than 189 publications, and his innovative ideas, made advancing scientific knowledge including food chemistry and nutritional health but also in various other areas: blood analysis, preparation of drugs...Better known as "Fighter of the only war that has a biological and moral justification: the war against hunger" as Jose Castro President of the FAO in 1954 recalls, less is known about the excep- tional longevity, 56 years, and riches of his military pharmacist career during which he participated in 17 campaigns and he was captured 5 times. Apothecary "sub-help" of the army of Hanover in 1757, he became apothecary "gagnant maitrise" in 1766 and transiently apothecary Major at the "Hotel des Invalides", then Royal Censor, chief pharmacist of Geneva Army, and Board Member Health to the Minister of War in 1788 and then again from 1792 to 1813. In 1796, he was charged with five other inspectors of the reorganization of the health service. Outstanding organizer, he simplifies and deeply streamlines, especially in the pharmaceutical field, evidenced by its pharmaceutical form for the use of military hospitals of the French Republic in 1793. He left his mark for a long time in the military health Service. Member of the general council of civilians hospices of Paris, he is responsible for organizing the central hospital pharmacy, which led him to publish in 1811 the pharmaceutical code for the use of civilian hospitals, relief at home and infirmaries of prison. Benefactor of mankind, but also recognized scholar, the Academy of Sciences made him one of its members in 1795. Parmentier was in 1803, the first president of the Society of Pharmacy of Paris who became the National Academy in October 1979. He died on December 17, 1813 leaving a considerable body of work.