Drugstore
Ranked second in France after the one in Paris, the Droguier in Montpellier reflects a long medical and pharmaceutical tradition. Established in the late 16th century following the creation of the Jardin des Plantes, it houses a rare collection: more than 10,000 specimens, primarily plant-based. Regularly expanded, this living museum serves as a valuable resource for understanding the history of “drugs” (plants, minerals, and animal substances with medicinal or nutritional properties) and the discovery of new medications. Now housed within the Faculty of Pharmacy, the Droguier de Montpellier has been listed as a Historic Monument since November 20, 2009.
The Montpellier Drug Museum houses nearly 10,000 drug specimens. Assembled over the centuries through travel and exchanges with people from all over the world, these collections remain very much alive and continue to grow through donations and bequests. They also grow through research: today, the museum is a very active center for education and research.
A place of learning, research, and cultural discovery, the “droguier” is a mecca for ethnopharmacology—the science that explores traditional knowledge related to the use of plants and what it has to teach us. This knowledge is quite complex… Because a plant is a veritable cocktail of chemical compounds, which varies depending on numerous factors: the season, the soil in which it grows, the amount of sunlight…
A Long History
In the mid-16th century, Guillaume de Rondelet, regent of the University of Medicine, established Montpellier’s first botanical garden. As early as 1588, a herbalist’s shop took shape thanks to the initiative of a Montpellier apothecary, Bernardin II Duranc, who decided to assemble a collection of plant specimens in his “shop” on Rue de l’Aiguillerie to teach “medical students” about the virtues of plants. The university’s doors were opened to a master apothecary… As the successor to that first herbalist’s shop, the Droguier de Montpellier was moved in 1963 to the new premises of the School of Pharmacy.
