He collaborated with Pierre-Joseph Pelletier in a Parisian laboratory located behind an apothecary.

He was a pioneer in the use of mild solvents to isolate a number of active ingredients from plants, making a study of alkaloids from vegetables.

Among their successes were the isolation of the following compounds: Quinine sulfate later proved to be an important remedy for the disease malaria.

Quinine is the active anti-malarial ingredient in the bark of cinchona tree.

[1][2] Neither of the partners chose to patent their discovery of this compound, releasing it for everybody to use.