Monardes, Nicolas

The first observation of fluorescence in solution occurred in 1565 by the Spanish physician and botanist Nicolas Monardes, who noticed a blue tint in the water contained in a recipient fabricated with a specimen of wood called lignum nephriticum [3, 11]. It was known in 1570 that the blue coloration that is produced by white light from the aqueous extract of the lignum nephriticum or peregrinum disappeared in acid medium. In 1615 a similar behavior was observed from the rind of Aesculos hippocastanum in aqueous medium [4]. When placed in water, the rind of chestnut produces a colorless liquid with bluish reflections today it is known that this originates from aesculin fluorescence [12]. 

Sunflower was introduced into Europe by the Spanish explorers returning to the continent at the beginning of the 1500s a.d. The first scientific review of American plants was made by Sevillan doctor Nicolas Bautista Monardes (1508-1588), who wrote Historia medicinal de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias Occidentales (A medical review of things brought from the West Indies, published in Seville in... 

Historically, one of the first known references on luminescence dates from the Chinese literature of the years 1500-1000 bc, where the phenomenon of light coming out from different types of glowworms is described. However, it appears that the first reported observation of photoluminescence can be traced back to the sixteenth century when a Spanish physician and botanist, Nicolas Monardes, reported a blue tint that appeared in the water contained in cups of a special type of wood. Edmond Becquerel (1820-91) was, during the nineteenth century, the most important researcher on phosphorescence phenomenon he not only obtained the excitation and emission spectra from different phosphors, but also performed many different fundamental studies including the effect of temperature or the measurement of the emission time of the phosphorescence phenomenon and established a exponential law to explain the decay of the phosphorescence emission. For such purposes he built in 1858 the first phosphoroscope that was able to measure lifetimes as short as 10 . ... 

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