T. R. Govindachari

Tuticorin Raghavachari Govindachari FNA, FASc (1915–2001), popularly known as TRG, was an Indian natural product chemist, academic, institution builder and the principal of Presidency College, Chennai.

[6] Govindachari was born on 30 July 1915 to Tuticorin Raghavachari and his wife Rajalakshmi in Chennai (then known as Madras) in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

[9] Govindachari's stay with Adams lasted three years during which time he assisted the US scientist in column chromatography, collection of fractions and their examination for the latter's investigation of the structures of alkaloids found in the various species of Senecioneae.

He headed the facility since its inception in 1977 till 1986 when the Science Foundation of Southern Petrochemical Industries Corporation entrusted him the responsibility of establishing a research centre for them.

[4] Tylophorine from Tylophora (now included in Vincetoxicum), tiliacorine from Tiliacora, echitamine from Alstonia, ropsine from Kopsia, gentianine from Gentiana, karpaine from Carica, and ancistroclaline from Ancistrocladus are some of the compounds structurally elucidated by him.

[7] At Presidency College, he mentored a number of research scholars which included Kuppuswamy Nagarajan, N. S. Narasimhan, N. Arumugam, B. S. Thyagarajan, M. V. Lakshmikantham, K. W. Gopinath, S. Rajappa, N. Viswanathan and P. C. Parthasarathy who all went on to become notable chemists.

[7] During his tenure at Ciba-Geigy Research Center, the institution was reported to have examined over 10,000 plant extracts and compounds which resulted in the development of 5 drugs, including Sintamil and Satranidazole, both already released into Indian market.

[8] His investigations on Wedelia calendulacea returned the isolation of wedelolactone having a novel furocoumarin structure with a pterocarpan template, which, though declared inactive during the initial tests at Abbott Laboratories, later found out to have antihepatitic properties.