[The French pharmaceutical school of heterosides (glycosides)].

Under the influence of Emile Bourquelot, several French pharmacists at the Ecole supérieure de pharmacie de Paris and the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle formed, at the end of the 19th century and during the first half of the 20th century, a veritable "French school of heterosides". Their work, which involved perfecting a new method for stabilizing the plants with ethanol and a process for enzymatic detection, led them to isolate and identify a large number of heterosides from a wide variety of plants. Bourquelot and Bridel also showed that the enzymatic reactions were reversible, a discovery that permitted the biochemical synthesis of these heterosides.

[The opening lectures in chemistry of the French pharmacists].

The opening lectures, which formerly marked the beginning of a professor's duties in an academic institution, are important documents for science historians. Several opening lectures in chemistry (organic, inorganic, analytical, biological or medicinal chemistry), which were given by French pharmacists in the Ecole or the Faculté de pharmacie de Paris, in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris, or in the Collège de France are analyzed. First, these lectures reveal formal aspects, such as the history of the chair or a eulogy of the works and personal qualities of the predecessor.

[The mineralogical and petrographical work of the pharmacists in the Museum].

Three famous pharmacists were working in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris, in the field of earth sciences: Louis Nicolas Vauquelin (1763-1829), André Laugier (1770-1832) and Alfred Lacroix (1863-1948). Vauquelin, professor of Chemical arts, established the chemical composition of numerous minerals, which led him to the discovery of new chemical elements. He also took a hand in demonstrating the extra-terrestrial origin of meteorites.

Countercurrent chromatographic isolation of lolitrem B from endophyte-infected ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) seed.

This paper describes a new method of purification of the Lolitrem B, a tremorgenic mycotoxin produced in planta by the endophytic fungus Neotyphodium lolii. The method is based on the large-scale isolation of the toxin by countercurrent chromatography (CCC). The lolitrem B content in endophyted ryegrass seed, 11 microg/g or 11 ppm, is extracted by stirring finely ground seeds with ethanol for 3 h at room temperature.

[The curiosities of three apothecaries].

Three apothecaries, who have lived between the 16th and the 17th centuries, Basilius Besler, Ferrante Imperato and Francesco Calzolari, set up famous private collections of curiosities (in Nuremberg, Naples and Verona, respectively). They practised pharmacy in their dispensaries, while cultivation natural history, and came into contact with the greatest scientists of their time. Besler, who directed the bishop of Eichstätt's gardens, managed the publication of a splendid Four Seasons Herbarium.