Father Raimbault, a passionate botanist, spent twenty-nine years in Nosy Be as a missionary, where he founded the Society of Perfume Plants of Madagascar, before settling in Reunion in 1935. His love for plants and for people motivated his research into the medicinal properties of plants, particularly to treat leprosy, which became the cause of his entire life.

However, his knowledge of medicinal plants went far beyond leprosy, and patients came from across the island to receive free consultations and remedies. He carefully recorded the effects and dosages of his remedies and relied on chemical analyses to confirm the properties of the plants. A brilliant botanist, he documented all his observations on the most well-known and effective medicinal plants. Unfortunately, his notes were destroyed during the devastating cyclone of 1948. All that remains is a small book published shortly before his death on “Medicinal Plants in Reunion”.

Today, 19 plants from Reunion are officially recognised in the national pharmacopoeia, meaning that France has acknowledged their usefulness.

Lemmon’s marigold (Tagetes lemmonii)