Léon-Albert Arnaud

Léon-Albert Arnaud (February 15, 1853 – March 27, 1915) was a French chemist born in Paris.

From 1872 he worked as an assistant in the laboratory of Michel Eugène Chevreul (1786-1889) at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle. In 1883 he succeeded François Stanislas Cloez (1817-1883) as aide-naturaliste, and from 1890 to 1915 was chair of applied organic chemistry at the museum.

Arnaud was the first scientist to describe the chemical make-up of tariric acid, an extraction from the glucoside of the "tariri plant" found in Guatemala.^[1] He is also credited with isolating tanghinine, taken from Tanghinia venenifera; (family Apocynaceae),^[2] and in 1883 discovered a new alkaloid called cinchonamine.

References

• Biographies, titres et travaux des principaux intervenants du destin du Jardin du Roi au Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (biography)

1. Journal of the Chemical Society, Volume 82, Part 1
2. Wood's Medical and surgical monographs