Pierre-Jean Robiquet

Abstract

Pierre-Jean Robiquet (1780-1840), a French pharmacist, made important contributions in the areas of mineral chemistry, mineral and vegetable pigments, and extractive and analytical chemistry. Alone, or with his collaborators he discovered asparagine (with Vauquelin), alizarin and purpurin in madder (with Colin), orcin, and orcein in lichens, glycyrrhizin in licorice, cantharidin in cantharides, amygdaline in bitter almonds (with Boutron-Charlard), caffeine (independently of Pelletier, Caventou, Runge) and narcotine and codeine in opium.