[1][2][3][4] Petrović was active in phyto-pharmacology, botany and medicine simultaneously, writing and publishing numerous scientific works.

After moving to Belgrade he finished gymnasium and received a bachelor degree at the science–mathematics faculty of the Lyceum of the Principality of Serbia, an equivalent to École normale supérieure.

On 23 November 1866, Petrović successfully defended his doctoral thesis—De la Nostomanie—at the prestigious Faculty of Medicine in Paris.

Under the aegis of Dr. Josif Pančić, Petrović started to collect and systematize the wild herbs from the vicinity of Kruševac.

[2][10] In the first work, Dr. Petrović cited more than 100 families, 502 genera and around 1,500 plant species, including 60 new for the flora of Serbia and five completely new for science.

The most prominent among them is Ramonda nathaliae, named after Queen Natalija, wife of his good friend King Milan Obrenović.