Pierre Paul Dehérain (19 April 1830 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

– 7 December 1902) was a French plant physiologist and agricultural chemist. He was notably the doctoral advisor of the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

winner Henri Moissan. He served as an assistant at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers in

, then at the age of 26, began work as a professor at the Collège Chaptal. He obtained his LSc degree in 1856 under Edmond Frémy. Later on, he taught classes in agricultural chemistry at the agricultural school in Grignon, and in 1880, became a professor of plant physiology at the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle. In 1887 he was elected a member of the Académie des sciences. As a plant physiologist, he studied the absorption of

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...

by plants and the effect of artificial light, especially

ultraviolet Ultraviolet radiation, also known as simply UV, is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 10–400 nanometers, shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation is present in sunlight and constitutes about 10% of ...

rays, on plants. He showed that plants do not absorb only those minerals that are beneficial, as previously thought, but absorb all of them and then use those that they need – so that consumption regulates absorption. He discovered respiration by plant roots and investigated the effect of different minerals on the growth of fruits. He also studied effect of crop rotation on soil quality. The plant genus '' Deherainia'' from the family Theophrastaceae is named after him.

Selected works

* ''Recherches sur l'emploi agricole des phosphates'', 1859 – Research on the agricultural use of phosphates. * ''Cours de chimie agricole, professé à L'École d'agriculture de Grignon'', 1873 – Agricultural chemistry courses taught at the School of Agriculture at Grignon. * ''Traité de chimie agricole : développement des végétaux, terre arable, amendements et engrais'', 1892 – Agricultural chemistry treatise: Development of plants,

topsoil Topsoil is the upper layer of soil. It has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms and is where most of the Earth's biological soil activity occurs. Description Topsoil is composed of mineral particles and organic mat ...

, modifications and fertilizers. * ''Les plantes de grande culture'', 1898 – Field crops.Most widely held works by P. P Dehérain
WorldCat Identities

References

* ''Dictionnaire de Biographie Francaise,'' Libraire Letouzey et Ane: 1933-1989, vol. 10, col 565-566. * ''Soc. d'Hist. Nat. d'Autun,'' 1903, 16, pp. 28-48. * ''Revue Gen. Sci.,'' 1894, 5, pp. 139-140.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Deherain, Pierre Paul 1830 births 1902 deaths 19th-century French botanists 19th-century French chemists Members of the French Academy of Sciences Plant physiologists Scientists from Paris