While it is not known exactly who discovered chloroplast, the first report of it was in 1682 when Nehemiah Grew

described green precipitates in leaves. We also know that chloroplasts in plant cells were identified in the 17th century by microscopists such as Anthony van Leeuwenhoek

Discovery

1. Because of their large size and green color, chloroplasts in plant cells were identified by early microscopists, including Anthony van Leeuwenhoek, in the 17th century 2. In 1682, Nehemiah Grew described green precipitates in leaves; this event is considered the first report of the existence of chloroplasts 3. The light-dependent production of oxygen by plants was discovered by Joseph Priestley in 1771 a. A mouse in an enclosed glass jar in which there was a burning candle died, but when a plant was also enclosed within the jar, it lived b. Priestley wrote: "I have been so happy as by accident to hit upon a method of restoring air which has been injured by the burning of candles and to have discovered at least one of the restoratives which Nature employs for this purpose. It is vegetation." c. Burning depletes oxygen in air in the jar, and the plant generates oxygen by photosynthesis

In 1796, Jean Senebier, a Swiss pastor, botanist, and naturalist, demonstrated that green plants consume carbon dioxide and release oxygen under the influence of light. Soon afterwards, NicolasThodore de Saussure showed that the increase in mass of the plant as it grows could not be due only to uptake of CO2, but also to the incorporation of water. Thus the basic reaction by which photosynthesis is used to produce food (such as glucose) was outlined.