Ten samples that have marked the history of chemistry

“This vial contains the first sample of cholesterol. Although everyone today knows about this essential lipid that causes problems when present at excessive levels, its discovery was due to the chemist Michel-Eugène Chevreul, who in 1814 obtained these brilliant crystals from… gallstones. He named the new substance cholesterine; this would subsequently become cholesterol because it contains an alcohol function.”

“In 1813, Nicolas Vauquelin, Professor of Chemistry at the Museum, entrusted his pupil Michel-Eugène Chevreul with the task of studying a soap made from pig fat. His analysis revealed a fatty acid that he named ‘margarine’ (or margaric acid) because of its pearl-like luster (from the Greek ‘margaritis’ which means ‘pearl’). He also tried to prepare margaric acid using other fats: from sheep, humans (as in this photograph), jaguar, geese or cattle. It would subsequently turn out that this discovery was in fact a mixture of two fatty acids.”

“From this resin, probably studied by chemists at the Museum in the early 20th century, balm of Judea – also referred to as balm of Mecca or balm of Gilead – was extracted. With a gold shimmer, a citrus odour and bitter taste, this substance was used in ancient Greece and Rome as a perfume and medicine, especially to heal wounds and treat stomach or intestinal pain.”

“These are the first synthetic rubies (shown in their crucible) that were used historically in watch movements. It was in the chemistry laboratory at the Museum that, around 1875, Edmond Frémy and his colleagues Charles Feil and then Auguste Verneuil, succeeded in synthesising ruby, a rare and expensive gemstone much sought after for its extreme hardness. Frémy made a synthetic ruby necklace for his wife, which was much admired during an evening at the Elysée Palace.”

“From a celebrated traveller called Révoil, the chemist Léon Albert Arnaud received poison from arrows from Somalia, some of which were coated with ‘waba’, a deadly substance obtained from Acokanthera plants. In 1888, Arnaud isolated the glucoside responsible for its effects, which he called ouabain; this would subsequently become a medicine used to treat acute cardiac failure. Indeed, it has been known since the 16th-century alchemist Paracelsus that ‘it is the dose that makes the poison’.”

“Tariric acid is the first acetylenic fatty acid – comprising a triple carbon-carbon bond – to have been evidenced in plants. Once again, it was Léon Albert Arnaud who managed to isolate it in 1892, this time from tariri seeds from a plant called Picramnia guianensis which originates from the Guianas.”

“Chrome alum, which takes the form of purple octahedral crystals, is obtained via a very rare mechanism: by evaporating together a solution of alum and another of chrome, the two components combine instead of crystallising separately. The result, illustrated by this sample, estimated to date from the end of the 19th century, shows that the crystals are much more strongly coloured than the two elements taken in isolation.”

“This is the historic lecture room of France’s first school of chemistry, created at the Museum by Edmond Frémy in 1864 and transferred to rue Buffon in 1872; the room was restored in 2021. The 7381 samples in our heritage collection are on display in the showcases. Such a rich heritage deserves a setting commensurate with its importance! We are delighted that we can now make it available to visitors and students.”