India's own long tradition of plant-based medicine. Ayurveda, Siddha and the other Indian systems had used herbs to treat disease for centuries, and Asima Chatterjee set out to find which chemical compound in each plant actually does the healing — turning traditional knowledge into tested chemistry.
Her method is the chemistry of this chapter used as a tool. To pull a useful compound out of a plant you dissolve the crushed herb in a chosen solvent — water, alcohol, or a hydro-alcoholic mixture — so that the compound you want passes into the solution while much of the rest of the plant does not. Choosing the right solvent, and then separating and purifying what dissolved, is how she isolated compounds and developed anti-epileptic and anti-malarial drugs.
| Achievement | What it was |
|---|---|
| Doctorate of Science | The second Indian woman to earn it, after Janaki Ammal |
| Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award | First woman to receive it in the field of chemical science |
| Padma Bhushan | Honoured by the nation for her contribution to science |