Asima Chatterjee: India’s First Woman with a Doctorate of Science

Asima Chatterjee was an Indian organic chemist. She worked on natural products, which are chemicals made by plants. Her maiden name was Mukherjee.

Where did she come from?

• She was born in Calcutta on 23 September 1917.
• She graduated with honours in chemistry from Scottish Church College in 1936.
• She took her MSc from the University of Calcutta in 1938.
• Her research guide was Prafulla Kumar Bose, a pioneer of natural product chemistry in India.

When did she die?

She died in Kolkata in November 2006. Sources give 22 and 24 November, so the exact day is not fixed.

What is the memory hook?

Think “1917 born, 1944 doctor”. Plants were her laboratory.

In 1944 Asima Chatterjee earned the Doctorate of Science of the University of Calcutta. Sources call her the first woman to earn that degree from an Indian university.

What was her thesis about?

Her work covered indole alkaloids and coumarins. Both are groups of chemicals found in plants.

What is a Doctorate of Science?

It is a higher degree than the usual doctorate. A university gives it for a body of research work. Do not mix it up with a PhD.

Where did she teach first?

• In 1940 she became the founder head of the chemistry department at Lady Brabourne College, Calcutta.
• In 1944 she also became an honorary lecturer at the University of Calcutta.

What is the memory hook?

Think “DSc, not PhD”. The degree was Indian, and the year was 1944.

Her main field was alkaloids. Alkaloids are bitter chemicals found in plants. Many of them act on the body, so they make useful medicines.

Which plants did she work on?

Her pioneering work covered the alkaloids of Rauwolfia, Vinca, Alstonia, Rhazya and Kopsia. Vinca is the Madagascar periwinkle.

What did she do abroad?

• She went to the USA on study leave in 1947.
• She worked on plant glycosides at the University of Wisconsin.
• She then worked on carotenoids at the California Institute of Technology.
• In 1949 and 1950 she worked with Paul Karrer at Zurich on indole alkaloids.

What did she add to the field?

She worked out the structures of several alkaloids. She also found a new way to make some of them in the laboratory.

What is the memory hook?

Think “plants, then pills”. She first found the chemical, then tested it as a drug.

Read further: INSA memoir; Feminism in India

Chatterjee developed two plant-based drugs. They are known by the codes Ayush-56 and Ayush-64.

What is Ayush-56?

• It is an anti-epileptic drug.
• It comes from the water fern Marsilea minuta, together with Nardostachys jatamansi.
• Its active chemical in the water fern is called marsilin.
• Marsilin is a sedative that helps control fits.

What is Ayush-64?

• It is an anti-malarial drug.
• It combines parts of four herbs.
• It is a mixture, not a single chemical.

Who owns the patents?

The Central Council for Research in Ayurveda and Siddha holds the patents. It works under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Several companies sell the drugs.

What is the memory hook?

Think “56 for fits, 64 for malaria”. Both come from plants.

She won the top science prize of India in 1961. Other honours came in 1975.

Which honours came when?

• 1960: she became a Fellow of the National Institute of Sciences of India, now the Indian National Science Academy.
• 1961: she won the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award for chemistry.
• 1975: she received the Padma Bhushan.
• 1975: she was General President of the 62nd Indian Science Congress.
• 1982 to 1990: she sat in the Rajya Sabha as a nominated member.

Which of these were firsts?

Sources call her the first woman to win the Bhatnagar award in chemistry. They also call her the first woman General President of the Indian Science Congress.

What is the memory hook?

Think “61 prize, 75 two honours”. Bhatnagar first, then Padma Bhushan and the Congress.

She spent most of her working life at the University of Calcutta. She trained scores of research students there.

What posts did she hold?

• In 1954 she became Reader in chemistry.
• In 1962 she became the Khaira Professor of Chemistry. She held this chair until she retired in 1982.
• From 1969 to 1979 she headed the chemistry department.

What did the department gain?

Under her the department became a leading centre for natural product research. In 1972 the University Grants Commission began a special assistance programme there. She was its coordinator. It grew into a Centre of Advanced Studies on Natural Products.

What else did she write?

She edited a six-volume Bengali work on Indian medicinal plants, called Bharater Bonousadhi. It won a gold medal of the University of Calcutta in 1981.

What is the memory hook?

Think “Reader 1954, chair 1962”. She led the department for ten years.

Four mix-ups come up again and again. Learn each pair.

What are the traps?

• DSc or PhD? Her 1944 degree was a Doctorate of Science, from an Indian university.
• Which drug? Ayush-56 is for epilepsy. Ayush-64 is for malaria.
• Which plant? Ayush-56 comes from the water fern Marsilea minuta. Do not confuse it with periwinkle.
• Which year? The Bhatnagar award came in 1961. The Padma Bhushan came in 1975.

How do you remember them?

Think “DSc 44, Bhatnagar 61, Padma 75”. Fits and malaria stay in order.