Prem Narain Saxena (15 October 1925 – 29 November 1999) was the Founder Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, India. He made several notable contributions to the fields of traditional medicine and neuropharmacology. His demonstration of the wound-healing property of ''

Curcuma longa Turmeric () is a flowering plant, ''Curcuma longa'' (), of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae, the rhizomes of which are used in cooking. The plant is a perennial, rhizomatous, herbaceous plant native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asi ...

'' was a major contributor to India's successful challenge of the US patent on the wound-healing property of

Haldi Haldi may refer to: * Ḫaldi, an Urartian god * ''Haldi'', Hindi/Punjabi/Bengali/Urdu/Gujarati name for the spice turmeric * Haldi, Estonia, village in Estonia * Haldi, Baltistan, a village in Pakistan * Haldi River Haldi River is a tributary o ...

. He was intimately involved in discovery and pre-clinical development of the non-barbiturate hypnotic

Methaqualone Methaqualone is a hypnotic sedative. It was sold under the brand names Quaalude ( ) and Sopor among others, which contained 300 mg of methaqualone, and sold as a combination drug under the brand name Mandrax, which contained 250 mg met ...

. His basic studies have helped in understanding the role of various neurotransmitters in thermoregulation. He also standardized the use of'' Setaria cervi'' for discovery of new anti-filarial agents.

Biography

Prem Narain Saxena was born on 15 October 1925, in the village of Bithri-chainpur,

Bareilly Bareilly () is a city in Bareilly district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is among the largest metropolises in Western Uttar Pradesh and is the centre of the Bareilly division as well as the historical region of Rohilkhand. The city ...

. It was a joint orthodox family village. He was the first child of his parents, Raghunandan Prasad and Saraswati Devi, and had three sisters. He married Rajeshwari Saxena.

Education

Saxena was schooled initially in his home village but from the age of six or seven he went to

Dehradun Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislative As ...

, where his father worked as an accountant in the Department of Irrigation. Although he suffered from

malnutrition Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is "a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients" which adversely affects the body's tissues a ...

and from illnesses such as

rickets Rickets is a condition that results in weak or soft bones in children, and is caused by either dietary deficiency or genetic causes. Symptoms include bowed legs, stunted growth, bone pain, large forehead, and trouble sleeping. Complications may ...

and

typhoid Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...

, he was a very brilliant student and came first both in matriculation from AP Mission School and Intermediate from DAV College in Dehradun. In the very first attempt, he qualified medical entrance and did

MBBS Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United King ...

with 10th position from the

King George Medical College King George's Medical University is a medical school, hospital, and medical university located in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. The medical school was raised to a medical university by an act passed by the government of Uttar Pradesh on 16 S ...

, Lucknow (now Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University) in 1947. He did ( MD) (

Medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

) in 1950 and ( MD) (

Pharmacology Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...

) in 1952 again from the King George Medical College, Lucknow. He was awarded his PhD from the

Patna University Patna University is a public state university in Patna, Bihar, India. It was established on 1 October 1917 during the British Raj. It is the first university in Bihar and the seventh oldest university in the Indian subcontinent in the modern er ...

in 1963 and his DSc from the

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University (abbreviated as AMU) is a Public University, public Central University (India), central university in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Orie ...

, Aligarh, in 1978.

Career

He joined the Department of Pharmacology of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College,

, Aligarh, on 14 April 1964 as Professor and Founder Chairman Department of Pharmacology. He served a period as Head Department of Pharmacology till 30 September 1985 and in view of his outstanding merits, he was re-employed by the University for the two years to 30 September 1987. Soon after retirement, he was selected as emeritus scientist of the

ICMR The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, is one of the oldest and largest medical research bodies in the world. The ICMR is funded by the Gove ...

, New Delhi, for a period from 1 September 1987, which he served till 14 September 1990. On 31 January 1991, the University appointed him as

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

. In the university, he had also acted as Dean, Faculty of Medicine, In-charge, Animal House and on few occasions as acting Principal Ajmal Khan Tibbiya College and acting Vice Chancellor of the University. As a Professor Emeritus, he continued his active research in the Department of Pharmacology till late December 1994 but due to illness of his wife (suffering from cancer and ultimately died on 19 March 1996); he did not manage to visit the department regularly and discontinued all his academic services from 1995.

Contribution, awards and achievements

He is nationally and internationally known as a leading neuro-pharmacologist as he worked mostly in the field of

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...

. He was awarded the Fellowship of

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

Fellow in USA during 1960–61; Commonwealth Medical Fellowship and then Wellcome Research Fellowship in England during the 1970s. In London at the

National Institute for Medical Research The National Institute for Medical Research (commonly abbreviated to NIMR), was a medical research institute based in Mill Hill, on the outskirts of north London, England. It was funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC); In 2016, the NIMR b ...

, he worked on mechanism of action of Pyrogen and in the field of

thermoregulation Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature ...

, with

Wilhelm Feldberg Wilhelm Siegmund Feldberg (19 November 1900 – 23 October 1993) was a German-British physiologist and biologist. Biography Feldberg was born in Hamburg to a wealthy middle class Jewish family. He studied medicine at Heidelberg, Munich ...

(1900–1993), a renowned German-British-Jewish pharmacologist and biologist. Wilhelm Feldberg assisted many research workers who came to England as a part of their Commonwealth Medical Fellowship and Wellcome Research Fellowship. Under these Fellowships, Saxena and Feldberg published many papers during the 1970s. In total, Saxena has approximately 145 published research papers. He wrote ''Hospital Formulary'' in 1969 and a book-cum-manual for practical pharmacy and experimental pharmacology laboratory. He had been founding member of many academic bodies such Indian Pharmacological Society, Association of Physiologists and Pharmacologists of India,

Indian Medical Association The Indian Medical Association (IMA) is a national voluntary organisation of physicians in India. It was established in 1928 as the All India Medical Association, and was renamed the Indian Medical Association in 1930. It is a society registered ...

, Indian Academy of Neurosciences and Indian Association for the Advancement of Medical Education in India.

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi for Indian scientists in all branches of science and technology. In August 2019, Dr. Chandrima Shaha was appointed as the president of Indian National Science Academ ...

(INSA) elected him Fellow (FNA) in 1987.

Death and family

Saxena died of a second stroke on 29 November 1999. He was admitted to KK Hospital, Aligarh before death. He was fond of

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

poetry and maintained a diary where he used to write his favourite couplets of Urdu poetry. His mother tongue was Urdu. Saxena had two daughters and one son.

Sources

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saxena, PN 20th-century Indian biologists 1925 births 1999 deaths Indian pharmacologists People from Aligarh Aligarh Muslim University alumni Academic staff of Aligarh Muslim University Indian medical academics