Sava Petrović (botanist)

Sava Petrović (1839-1889) was one of Serbia's most important botanists in the 19th century.Dr. Sava Petrović was active in botany and medicine simultaneously, writing and publishing numerous scientific works in both fields.

Biography

Petrović was born in Šabac, then part of the Principality of Serbia, on 14 January 1839. There he completed grade school and started high school. 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.Professor Josif Pančić who noticed the precocious young man, tried to encourage him. With Dr. Pančić's help, Petrović was awarded a state scholarship to study medicine and surgery in France. On 23 November 1866, Petrović successfully defended his doctoral thesis -- De la Nostomanie -- at the prestigious Faculty of Medicine in Paris.

Upon his return home in 1867, he went on to become a district physician in Kruševac. Under the aegis of Dr. Josif Pančić, Dr. Sava Petrović started to collect and systematize the wild herbs from the vicinity of Kruševac. In the winter of 1867, he was transferred to Belgrade to a military hospital unit where he soon reached the rank of colonel, the highest post that a Serbian military physician could aspire at the time.

On 27 May 1872, Dr. Sava Petrović and 15 other prominent Belgrade physicians established the Serbian Medical Society.

In 1873 Milan Obrenović invited Dr. Petrović to his court and made him his personal physician. It was Milan who urged Dr. Petrović to start collecting and studying the flora of the vicinity of Niš. Based on the result of these studies, Petrović wrote two comprehensive books -- “Flora of the vicinity of Niš” (1882) and "Supplement to the Flora of the vicinity of Niš” (1885).

In “Flora of the vicinity of Niš", 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.

In the “Supplement", Dr. Petrović cited 160 plants as new for the flora of the vicinity of Niš, though many of them were also new for science.

Also, Sava Petrović was the first scientist in Serbia to collect and study medicinal plants. His “Medicinal Plants of Serbia” (1883) shows fully his dedication to pharmacognosis. Although the first official pharmacopeia -- the science of preparing medicine -- was done in 1881, Dr. Petrović contributed in 1883 by enlarging the scope of the work.

He was instrumental in establishing the present-day Botanical Garden Jevremovacin Belgrade while supporting other botanical gardens with saplings grown in Belgrade.

On 27 May 1872, Dr. Sava Petrović and 15 other prominent Belgrade physicians established the Serbian Medical Society.

He died on 20 January 1889. He was buried at Belgrade New Cemetery.

Legacy

Dr. Sava Petrović’s legacy in botanical work is huge. While collecting and studying flora in the vicinity of Niš, he described ten plants taxa new for science which are still considered valid, while there are taxa that have kept their original names without any change: Genista, Nonea, Hypericum, Cyanus, Edraianthus, Orobanche, Psilocybe serbica, Tandonia serbica, Tulipa serbica, Ramonda serbica, Ramonda nathaliae, Primula, Hypochaeris radicata. Dr. Petrović made many contributions to the List of Balkan endemic plants.