Ernest Fourneau (4 October 1872 – 5 August 1949) was a French pharmacist who graduated in 1898 for the Paris university specialist in medicinal chemistry and

pharmacology Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...

. He played a major role in the discovery of synthetic local anesthetics such as

amylocaine Amylocaine was the first synthetic local anesthetic. It was synthesized and patented under the name Stovaine by Ernest Fourneau at the Pasteur Institute in 1903. It was used mostly in spinal anesthesia.Debue-Barazer, Christine (2007)"Les Implicatio ...

, as well as in the synthesis of suramin. He authored more than two hundred scholarly works, and has been described as having "helped to establish the fundamental laws of chemotherapy that have saved so many human lives". Fourneau was a pupil of Friedel and Moureu, and studied in the German laboratories of

Ludwig Gattermann Ludwig Gattermann (20 April 1860 – 20 June 1920) was a German chemist who contributed significantly to both organic and inorganic chemistry. Early life Ludwig Gatterman was born on 20 April 1860 in Goslar, an old mining town north of th ...

in Heidelberg,

Hermann Emil Fischer Hermann Emil Louis Fischer (; 9 October 1852 – 15 July 1919) was a German chemist and 1902 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He discovered the Fischer esterification. He also developed the Fischer projection, a symbolic way of dra ...

in Berlin and Richard Willstätter in Munich. He headed the research laboratory of

Poulenc Frères Poulenc Frères (Poulenc Brothers) was a French chemical, pharmaceutical and photographic supplies company that had its origins in a Paris pharmacy founded in 1827. From 1852 it began to manufacture (or package) photographic chemicals. It took the ...

in Ivry-sur-Seine from 1903 to 1911. One of the products was a synthetic local anesthetic that was named Stovaine (

). This was a pun on the English translation of "fourneau" as "stove". (The same pun was used in the brand name of the drug

acetarsol Acetarsol (or acetarsone) is an anti- infective drug. It was first discovered in 1921 at Pasteur Institute by Ernest Fourneau, and sold under the brand name Stovarsol. It has been given in the form of suppositories. Acetarsol can be used to ma ...

, Stovarsol.) Other important medicines were antipyretics. In 1910 Fourneau accepted the directorship of the Pasteur Institute's

medical chemistry Medicinal or pharmaceutical chemistry is a scientific discipline at the intersection of chemistry and pharmacy involved with designing and developing pharmaceutical drugs. Medicinal chemistry involves the identification, synthesis and developmen ...

section, with the condition that he maintained his ties with Poulenc Frères. He recruited

Germaine Benoit Germaine Benoit (9 October 1901 – April 1983)

to work in the Institute as a new graduate. He was a member of the

Académie Nationale de Médecine Situated at 16 Rue Bonaparte in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the Académie nationale de médecine (National Academy of Medicine) was created in 1820 by King Louis XVIII at the urging of baron Antoine Portal. At its inception, the instituti ...

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* * French biochemists French pharmacologists Knights of the Order of Agricultural Merit Officers of the Order of Polonia Restituta Complutense University of Madrid Officers of the Legion of Honour People from Biarritz 1872 births 1949 deaths {{France-chemist-stub