Biography
Sukh Dev Lala, Indian organic chemist (Chakwal, Punjab Province 17 June 1923 – 16 October 2024)
Authored about 500 scientific publications and 10 books
Discovered several new structural types in sesqui and diterpenoids
Characterized active principles of some Ayurvedic drugs such as shatavarin I from the roots of Asparagus racemosus
Obtained longifolene and carene from Indian turpentine (Pinus longifolia), the himachalenes from devadaaru and bakuchiol from baakuchi
First to demonstrate that himachalenes occurring in essential oils show useful broad spectrum activity against a variety of ectoparasites
Developed Guggulsterone, a plant-derived steroid used as a therapeutic and nutritional agent
Isolated copaene, longicyclene, cheilanthatriol, malabaricol and atisirene
Achieved structural elucidation of novel and complex secondary plant metabolites such as zerumbone, himachalenes, malabaricol, cheilanthatriol, kodocytochalasins, bakuchiol, guggulsterone and guggultetrols between others
Isolated and determinated the stereostructures of new complex molecules such as himachalenes, cuparenones, kodocytochalasins and guggulsterones
With U.R. Nayak discovered the longicyclene, the first tetracyclic sesquiterpene (1963)
With H. Khan, A. Zaman, G.L. Chetty & A.S. Gupta discovered cheilanthatriol, the first sesterterpene with the triterpene type ring-closure (1971)
Discovered bakuchiol, the first meroterpene derived from C8+C10 pathway
Discovered the guggultetrols, a new class of lipids
With A. Chawla obtained a new class of triterpenoids from Ailanthus malabarica (1967)
Developed new products as Guggulipid (hypocholesterolemic drug)
Proposed concepts as the absolute stereochemistry biogenetic rule and the rule that claims that exotic biological materials tend to produce exotic secondary metabolites
Enunciated the concept of steric diversion
Demonstrated the value of reestructuring abundantly available natural products into chiral molecules of economic value
METHODS/INNOVATIONS
Introduced chromic acid for oxidative work-up of ozonides, thiourea for reductive cleavage of olefin ozonolysis products and Titanium tetrachloride for thioacetalization
First to propose organic reactions in a solid matrix
Devised several methods for synthesis and characterization of non-benzenoid aromatic systems and proposed novel systems with potential aromatic character
With A.S. Gupta first to introduce the use of silver nitrate-silica gel for thin-layer chromatography of olefins (1962)
Heterocyclic cleavage of homoallylic alcohols
Composite amine catalysis for Knoevenagel-type condensation
Manufacture of dihydrojasmone
Improved Lindlar catalyst for semihydrogenation of acetylenes
Developed a molybdenum oxide based Raney nickel catalyst for hydrogenation of glucose to sorbitol
Developed a copper-nickel-manganese catalyst for the hydrogenation of cyclohexanones to phenols
With J.S. Yadav & H.P.S. Chawla. Cleavage of homoallylic alcohols, a novel fragmentation reaction. Tetrahedron Lett. 201, 1977
With M.C. Desai, C. Singh & H.P.S. Chawla. A novel method for functionalization of C-4methyl in terpenoids. A synthesis of cycloeucalanone. Tetrahedron Lett. 5047, 1979
With V.H. Kapadia, R. Seshagiri Rao & M.Y. Ansari discovered that the alkaloid colchicine could be sourced from Iphigenia stellate for commercial purposes (patented in 1971)
Held about 55 patents
HONOURS
Ernest Guenther Award, American Chemical Society (1980)
