Adelaida N. Lukanina (née Rykacheva, later Paevskaia; 1843–1908) was a Russian medical doctor and chemist known for her chemical research and for being an early woman physician in the United States.
In collaboration with Aleksandr Borodin, a Russian composer and chemist, she discovered that albumen could be oxidized to produce urea and corrected Heinrich Limpricht's incorrect elucidation of succinyl chloride's reaction with benzoin.
After her graduation, she returned to Europe and published a series telling stories from the United States in a liberal Saint Petersburg outlet.
"Liubushka" and "Olden-day Matters" were semi-autobiographical expositions on rural life in Novgorod; whereas "Ward #103" told of Lukanina's experiences treating sex workers as a physician in Zurich.
During the 1890s Lukanina married again, becoming Adelaida Paevskaia, but this marriage ended in 1894 or 1895 and she became a shopkeeper as well as a physician, hiring poor women whom she treated, taught, and housed.