Mathurin-Joseph Fordos (3 November 1816 – 1 July 1878) was a French pharmaceutical chemist who was the first to examine what he named as

pyocyanin Pyocyanin (PCN−) is one of the many toxic compounds produced and secreted by the Gram negative bacterium ''Pseudomonas aeruginosa''. Pyocyanin is a blue secondary metabolite, turning red below pH 4.9, with the ability to oxidise and reduce other ...

, the blue pigment in pus produced by ''

Pseudomonas aeruginosa ''Pseudomonas aeruginosa'' is a common encapsulated, gram-negative, aerobic–facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped bacterium that can cause disease in plants and animals, including humans. A species of considerable medical importance, ''P. aerugi ...

''. This was the first natural

phenazine Phenazine is an organic compound with the formula (C6H4)2N2. It is a dibenzo annulation, annulated pyrazine, and the parent substance of many dyestuffs, such as the toluylene red, indulines, and safranines (and the closely related eurhodines). Phe ...

to be described. He also collaborated with

Louis Daguerre Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre ( , ; 18 November 1787 – 10 July 1851) was a French artist and photographer, recognized for his invention of the eponymous daguerreotype process of photography. He became known as one of the fathers of photog ...

and is thought to have been involved in producing one of the first photographs in 1837 of the

Pont Neuf The Pont Neuf (, "New Bridge") is the oldest standing bridge across the river Seine in Paris, France. It stands by the western (downstream) point of the Île de la Cité, the island in the middle of the river that was, between 250 and 225 BC, ...

in Paris.

Biography

Fordos was born in Serent and studied pharmacy at Paris where he worked in hospitals thereafter. He met and began to collaborate with Amédée Gélis, another pharmacy intern, and together they established a society for pharmaceutical science and began to conduct research. Their first work was on inorganic compounds. In 1843, the Fordos and Gélis synthesized sodium aurothiosuphate which had an application for fixing daguerreotypes. It was called Fordos and Gelis salt. The chemical became of interest again when it was claimed, in 1925, to show effectiveness in the treatment of tuberculosis. It then came to be called sanocrysin. They also examined sodium tetrathionate and sulfur nitride. In 1860 he examine the blue colour of pus and extracted the compound in crystalline form using chloroform and called in pyocyanine. He examined its physical properties and it was only in 1882 that it was found by Carle Gessard that it was produced by ''Pseudomonas aeruginosa'' and functioned to kill other competing micro-organisms. He also contributed to studies on lead in waterpipes and its toxicity when used for carrying drinking water.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fordos, Mathurin-Joseph 1816 births 1878 deaths French chemists