Joseph Bienaimé Caventou (30 June 1795 – 5 May 1877) was a
French pharmacist. He was a professor at the École de Pharmacie (School of Pharmacy) in
Paris. 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.