Rai Bahadur
RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many te ...
Sir Upendranath Brahmachari ( bn, উপেন্দ্রনাথ ব্রহ্মচারী) (19 December 1873 – 6 February 1946) was a leading Indian
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
and
scientist
A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences.
In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosop ...
of his time. He synthesised
Urea
Urea, also known as carbamide, is an organic compound with chemical formula . This amide has two amino groups (–) joined by a carbonyl functional group (–C(=O)–). It is thus the simplest amide of carbamic acid.
Urea serves an important ...
-Stibamine (carbostibamide) in 1922 and determined that it was an effective treatment for
Kala-azar (Visceral leishmaniasis).
Early life
Upendranath Brahmachari was born on 19 December 1873 in Sardanga village near Purbasthali, District Burdwan of West Bengal, India. His father Nilmony Brahmachari was a physician in East Indian Railways. His mother's name was Saurabh Sundari Devi. He completed his early education from Eastern Railways Boys' High School, Jamalpur. In 1893, he passed BA degree from
Hooghly Mohsin College with honours in Mathematics and Chemistry. Thereafter he went to study Medicine with Higher Chemistry. He passed his master's degree in 1894 from the
Presidency College, Kolkata. In M.B. Examination of 1900 of the
University of Calcutta
The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every yea ...
, he stood first in Medicine and in Surgery for which he received Goodeve and Macleod awards. He obtained his MD degree in 1902, and was awarded a PhD degree in 1904, for his research paper on "Studies in Haemolysis" both from the
University of Calcutta
The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every yea ...
.
In 1898, he married Nani Bala Devi.
Life and career
In 1922, Brahmachari also discovered a new, deadly form of
leishmaniasis
Leishmaniasis is a wide array of clinical manifestations caused by parasites of the trypanosome genus '' Leishmania''. It is generally spread through the bite of phlebotomine sandflies, ''Phlebotomus'' and ''Lutzomyia'', and occurs most freq ...
. He called it dermal leishmanoid, marked by the appearance of sudden eruptions on the face of the patients without fever or other complaints. He observed it as a disease in partially cured cases of kala-azar, along with those who had no history of the disease at all. It has since been termed as
post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis
Post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) is a complication of visceral leishmaniasis (VL); it is characterised by a macular, maculopapular, and nodular rash in a patient who has recovered from VL and who is otherwise well. The rash usually start ...
(PKDL).
Awards and honours
He was awarded the title of
Rai Bahadur
RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many te ...
and awarded the
Kaisar-i-Hind Gold Medal, 1st Class by the Governor General Lord Lytton (1924), In 1934, he was conferred a
knighthood
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the ...
by the British Government (1934)
Brahmachari was a nominee for the Nobel Prize twice in 1929 and 1942 in the category of physiology and medicine. He was president of the 23rd session of the
Indian Science Congress in Indore (1936). He was the President of the Indian Chemical Society, Calcutta (1936). He was honoured with the fellowships of the Royal Society of Medicine, London and the Indian National Science Academy as well as the President of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for two years (1928–29).
He was also the Vice-chairman of the board of Trustees of the Indian Museum.
Important works
# Studies in Haemolysis, Calcutta University, 1909.
# Kala-Azar : Its treatment, Butterworth & Co. Ltd. Calcutta 1917.
# Kala-Azar in Doctor Carl Mense’s Handbuch der Tropenkranahaiten, vol. IV, 1926.
# Treatise on Kala-Azar, John Bale, Son’s & Danielsson Ltd., London, 1928.
# Campaign against Kala-Azar in India, Jubilee Publication on the 80th birthday of Dr. Prof. Bernhard Nocht, Hamburg, clique aqui 1937.
# Progress of Medical Research work in India during the last 25 years, an progress of Science in India, during the past 25 years, Indian Science Congress Association 1938.
# Gleanings from my Researchers Vol. I, Calcutta University 1940
# Gleanings from my Researchers Vol. II Calcutta University 1941
# Infantile Biliary Cirrhosis in India in British Encyclopedia of Medical practice. Edited by Sir Humphrey Rolleston
Notes
References
# ''Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy'' Vol. 4., Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, 1976.
# ''Dictionary of Medical Biography'' Vol. 1 A-B, Edited by W. F. Bynum and Helen Bynum, Greenwood Press, 2006
External links
Profile in ''Dream 2047''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brahmachari, Upendranath
1873 births
1946 deaths
Presidency University, Kolkata alumni
Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata
19th-century Indian medical doctors
Knights Bachelor
Indian Knights Bachelor
Medical doctors from Kolkata
University of Calcutta alumni
University of Calcutta faculty
Bengali Hindus
People of British India
Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy
Presidents of The Asiatic Society
20th-century Indian medical doctors
Dhaka Medical College and Hospital faculty
Hooghly Mohsin College alumni
Medical doctors from West Bengal