Tuticorin Raghavachari Govindachari

FNA FNA may refer to: * Algerian National Front (French: ') * β-FNA, beta-funaltrexamine, ''beta''-funaltrexamine, an opioid antagonist * Farmers of North America, a Canadian agricultural company * Fars News Agency, in Iran * Fédération Française A ...

, FASc (1915–2001), popularly known as TRG, was an Indian natural product chemist, academic, institution builder and the principal of Presidency College, Chennai. He was known for his studies on the synthesis of isoquinolines and phenanthridines and his contributions in elucidating the structure of several plant constituents. He was an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy and was the nominator of Robert Burns Woodward who won the 1965

Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...

. The

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada''), abbreviated as CSIR, was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body that has emerged as the l ...

, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1960, for his contributions to chemical sciences, making him the first recipient of the award in the chemical sciences category.

Biography

Govindachari was born on 30 July 1915 to Tuticorin Raghavachari and his wife Rajalakshmi in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

(then known as Madras) in the south Indian state of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

. Graduating from Presidency College, Chennai in chemistry, he continued at the institution for his master's degree for which he studied under B. B. Dey, his topic of research being

isoquinolines Isoquinoline is a heterocyclic aromatic organic compound. It is a structural isomer of quinoline. Isoquinoline and quinoline are benzopyridines, which are composed of a benzene ring fused to a pyridine ring. In a broader sense, the term isoquino ...

. After completing his master's degree, he enrolled for PhD, again under D. D. Dey at the same institution, and secured the degree from

Madras University The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigious universities in India, incorporated by an a ...

while working as an assistant to his guide on a CSIR-funded project for the production of dye and drug intermediates by electrolytic processes. Obtaining a scholarship from the Government of Madras, he went to the US in 1946 and did his post-doctoral studies at the

University of Illinois, Urbana The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign, Illinois, Champai ...

under the guidance of

Roger Adams Roger Adams (January 2, 1889 – July 6, 1971) was an American organic chemist who developed the eponymous Adams' catalyst, and helped determine the composition of natural substances such as complex vegetable oils and plant alkaloids. He isolat ...

, best known for lending his name to Adams's catalyst which was prepared for the first time by him in association with V. Voorhees. Govindachari's stay with Adams lasted three years during which time he assisted the US scientist in column chromatography, collection of fractions and their examination for the latter's investigation of the structures of

alkaloids Alkaloids are a class of basic, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of similar st ...

found in the various species of

Senecioneae Senecioneae is the largest tribe of the Asteraceae, or the sunflower family, comprising over 150 genera and over 3,500 species. Almost one-third of the species in this tribe are placed in the genus ''Senecio''. Its members exhibit probably the w ...

. In 1949, Govindachari returned to India and in January the next year, he joined Presidency College as an additional professor at the department of chemistry. He served the institution for the next thirteen years during which period, he became a professor in 1952 and the principal of the college in 1961. He superannuated from service in 1962, and after a year, he joined the Research Center of Ciba-Geigy in Mumbai in 1963 as its director. His association with the center continued till 1975 when he returned to Chennai to serve as a consultant to

Central Leather Research Institute Central Leather Research Institute or CLRI is the world's largest leather research institute in terms of research papers and patents. The institute located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu was founded on 24 April 1948 as a constituent laboratory under the ...

and after two years, Amrutanjan, a pharmaceutical company, assigned him the responsibility of setting up an R&D facility for them in Chennai. He headed the facility since its inception in 1977 till 1986 when the Science Foundation of

Southern Petrochemical Industries Corporation Southern Petrochemical Industries Corporation Ltd, or SPIC, (, ) is an Indian company that manufactures fertilizer products. The company, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, was incorporated on 18 December 1969 and became a joint ventu ...

entrusted him the responsibility of establishing a research centre for them. He set up the ''Centre for Agrochemical Research'' in 1987 and held its directorship till his last. Govindachari was married to Rajamani and the couple had three children, T. G. Rajagopalan, T. G. Sundararajan and Anuradha Jagannathan. He died on 28 December 2001, aged 86, at his home town of Chennai, survived by his children; his wife had predeceased him.

Legacy

Neem (Azadirachta indica) in Hyderabad W IMG 6976

It is reported that his involvement with the structural elucidation of

at Roger Adams' laboratory strengthened Govindachari's conviction to continue his researches along the same lines. Back in India, he continued working on alkaloids,

terpenoids The terpenoids, also known as isoprenoids, are a class of naturally occurring organic chemicals derived from the 5-carbon compound isoprene and its derivatives called terpenes, diterpenes, etc. While sometimes used interchangeably with "terpenes", ...

and oxygen heterocycles and worked on

isoquinoline Isoquinoline is a heterocyclic aromatic organic compound. It is a structural isomer of quinoline. Isoquinoline and quinoline are benzopyridines, which are composed of a benzene ring fused to a pyridine ring. In a broader sense, the term isoquin ...

s, phenathridines, benzophenanthridines, pyridophenanthridines, dibenzoquinolizines,

terpene Terpenes () are a class of natural products consisting of compounds with the formula (C5H8)n for n > 1. Comprising more than 30,000 compounds, these unsaturated hydrocarbons are produced predominantly by plants, particularly conifers. Terpenes ar ...

flavone Flavone is an organic compound with the formula . A white solid, flavone is a derivative of chromone with a phenyl (Ph) substituent adjacent to the ether group. The compound is of little direct practical importance, but susbstituted derivatives, t ...

s, and

furocoumarin The furanocoumarins, or furocoumarins, are a class of organic chemical compounds produced by a variety of plants. Most of the plant species found to contain furanocoumarins belong to a handful of plant families. The families Apiaceae and Rutacea ...

s. Tylophorine from ''Tylophora'' (now included in ''

Vincetoxicum ''Vincetoxicum'' is a genus of plants in the family Apocynaceae. Although the species in ''Vincetoxicum'' have sometimes been included in ''Cynanchum'', chemical and molecular evidence shows that ''Vincetoxicum'' is more closely related to ''Tylo ...

''), tiliacorine from ''

Tiliacora ''Tiliacora'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Menispermaceae. Species include:''Tiliacora''. ...

'', echitamine from ''

Alstonia ''Alstonia'' is a widespread genus of evergreen trees and shrubs, of the family Apocynaceae. It was named by Robert Brown in 1811, after Charles Alston (1685–1760), professor of botany at Edinburgh from 1716 to 1760. The type species ''Alsto ...

'', ropsine from ''

Kopsia ''Kopsia'' is a genus of plant in family Apocynaceae first described as a genus in 1823. ''Kopsia'' is native to China, Southeast Asia, Australia, and various islands of the western Pacific. Species Note: # '' Kopsia angustipetala'' Kerr - Tha ...

'', gentianine from ''

Gentiana ''Gentiana'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the gentian family (Gentianaceae), the tribe Gentianeae, and the monophyletic subtribe Gentianinae. With about 400 species it is considered a large genus. They are notable for their mostl ...

'', karpaine from '' Carica'', and ancistroclaline from '' Ancistrocladus'' are some of the compounds structurally elucidated by him. He also worked on

Azadirachta indica ''Azadirachta indica'', commonly known as neem, nimtree or Indian lilac, is a tree in the mahogany family Meliaceae. It is one of two species in the genus ''Azadirachta'', and is native to the Indian subcontinent and most of the countries in Afri ...

for isolating its constituents. At Presidency College, he mentored a number of research scholars which included Kuppuswamy Nagarajan, N. S. Narasimhan, N. Arumugam, B. S. Thyagarajan, M. V. Lakshmikantham, K. W. Gopinath, S. Rajappa, N. Viswanathan and P. C. Parthasarathy who all went on to become notable chemists. During his tenure at Ciba-Geigy Research Center, the institution was reported to have examined over 10,000 plant extracts and compounds which resulted in the development of 5 drugs, including Sintamil and Satranidazole, both already released into Indian market. His investigations on

Wedelia calendulacea ''Wedelia calendulacea'' may refer to: *''Wedelia calendulacea'' (L.) Less., an illegitimate name that is a synonym of ''Sphagneticola calendulacea'' *''Wedelia calendulacea'' Rich, an unresolved name in the genus ''Wedelia'' References

{{SI ...

returned the isolation of ''wedelolactone having a novel furocoumarin structure with a pterocarpan template'', which, though declared inactive during the initial tests at

Abbott Laboratories Abbott Laboratories is an American multinational medical devices and health care company with headquarters in Abbott Park, Illinois, United States. The company was founded by Chicago physician Wallace Calvin Abbott in 1888 to formulate known dr ...

, later found out to have antihepatitic properties. This was subsequently confirmed by H. Wagner, a German phytochemist. He established two research centres, the R&D facility for

Amrutanjan Healthcare Amrutanjan Healthcare Limited is an Indian pharmaceutical company headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It was founded by Kasinadhuni Nageswara Rao in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1893. History Amrutanjan was established as a patent medi ...

and Centre for Agrochemical Research for

SPIC ''Spic'' (also spelled ''spick'') is an ethnic slur used in the United States for people from Latin American countries and states. Etymology Some sources from the United States believe that the word ''spic'' is a play on a Spanish-accented pron ...

Science Foundation and at the former, he contributed to the development of an extraction and purification process for Vinca alkaloids. Govindachari has published his research findings in a book, ''Chemistry of Natural Products: V. 8'', and over 340 articles. His work has also been quoted in several text books, treatises and other works. He was associated with science journals viz. Indian Journal of Chemistry, Medicinal and Aromatic plants Abstracts and The Wealth of India as a member of their editorial board. He sat in the council of the Indian National Science Academy from 1966 to 1968 and in the bureau of

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC ) is an international federation of National Adhering Organizations working for the advancement of the chemical sciences, especially by developing nomenclature and terminology. It is ...

(IUPAC) from 1963 to 1970 and served as the founder trustee of the National Organic Symposium Trust, a science forum promoting organic chemistry in India, from 1983 to 1986. He was a member of the Pharmaceuticals and Drugs Committee of the

and the research councils of

National Chemical Laboratory The National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) is an Indian government laboratory based in Pune, in western India. Popularly known as NCL, a constituent member of the CSIR India, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) India, it was estab ...

and

Central Drug Research Institute The Central Drug Research Institute is a multidisciplinary research laboratory in Lucknow, India, employing scientific personnel from various areas of biomedical sciences. Prof. Tapas Kumar Kundu, a molecular biologist, academician and recipien ...

. He presided the Indian Chemical Society during 1971–72 and was a member of

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Ro ...

, the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all d ...

and Swiss Chemical Society. He was the nominator for Robert Burns Woodward who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1965.

Awards and honors

The Indian Academy of Sciences elected Govindachari as its fellow in 1951 and the Indian National Science Academy followed suit in 1959. When the

awarded him the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (SSB) is a science award in India given annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for notable and outstanding research, Applied science, applied or Fundamenta ...

in 1960, he became the first recipient of the award in the chemical sciences category. The Indian National Science Academy awarded him the Meghanad Saha Medal; the Academy would honor him again in 1986 with the Golden Jubilee Commemoration Medal. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the

Chemical Research Society of India Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI) is an India based scientific society A learned society (; also learned academy, scholarly society, or academic association) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, professio ...

in 2000. Govindachari delivered several award orations and the list includes Professor K. Venkataraman Endowment Lectureship of

Bombay University The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai. The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed ...

(1965 and 1996), Dr. Mahendra Lal Sircar Memorial Lectureship of Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (1970), Sir S. Subramania Iyer Lectureship of

(1970), H. K. Sen Memorial Lectureship (1970) and the plenary lecture in the inaugural meeting of the Natural Products Section of the

. ''Alkaloids: Chemical and Biological Perspectives'' journal dedicated the volume 15 of their 2001 edition to Govindachari and ARKIVOC issued a

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

Biography

Legacy

Awards and honors

Selected bibliography

Books

Articles

Citations

See also

Notes

References

External links

Further reading