Some of the earliest recorded research into the actual reasoning behind the growth of plants, published posthumously in 1648, was written by a Flemish chemist known as Jan Baptist van Helmont (1579-1644)
The understanding that a plant needs water as an element carrier for plant life to thrive and the knowledge from where plants derived their mass. Helmont was also known to articulate the word gas in early scientific learning of the time. Though his research methods lacked scientific validity, van Helmont’s line of inquiry and experimentation would ultimately lead to the understanding of photosynthesis.
Joan Baptista Van Helmont: Reformer of Science and Medicine>