T R Govindachari’s natural products chemistry

Prof. Govindachari’s research career, which spanned more than five decades, was almost completely devoted to the chemistry of Indian plants wherein he made seminal contributions. His work was notable for two major reasons: Firstly, it focused on the isolation and structure elucidation of plant constituents, occasionally supported by total or partial synthesis. Secondly his interests were copiously distributed among different classes, alkaloids, terpenes, oxygen heterocycles and other systems. It is impossible to do full justice to his work and this article provides only a selection which will give a flavor of his contributions.