Prof. Sukh Dev’s research has made significant contributions to natural product chemistry, Ayurvedic drug development, and technology development. His group extensively investigated the isolation and structure determination of complex natural products, including the determination of their absolute stereochemistry. Many of these compounds represented fundamentally new structural types in nature and were subsequently regarded as “classics” by Chemical Engineering News (September 1979, p.63) [1]. During 1972–1988, Prof. Sukh Dev’s group was also actively involved in drug development based on Ayurvedic leads. One notable example was guggulu, the gum resin obtained from the tree Commiphora mukul, which has traditionally been used in Ayurveda to treat lipid disorders. Two steroidal bis-enones, (E)-guggulsterone and (Z)-guggulsterone, were reported to exhibit pronounced hypocholesterolemic and hypolipaemic activity. Another important achievement was the identification and demonstration of shatavarin-I as the anti-oxytocin principle of shatavari, the roots of Asparagus racemosus. Shatavari is an Ayurvedic drug traditionally recommended for the treatment of threatened abortion. In addition to natural product research and Ayurvedic drug development, Prof. Sukh Dev’s group developed several important synthetic technologies. These included routes to (−)–menthol, (+)–carvone, and (+)–mentha–2, 8-dienol, the latter being a valuable raw material for the synthesis of tetrahydrocannabinol, an anti-nauseant used for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. The group also developed technologies for synthesizing key pyrethroid intermediates, including (+)–chrysanthemic acid, (−)–caronaldehyde acid hemiacetal, and (+)–pyrethric acid. In essence, Prof. Sukh Dev’s research career encompasses a remarkable range of achievements. From the 1950s through the 1970s, despite limited research facilities, his group made pioneering contributions to the isolation and structural characterization of natural products. This work was followed by significant efforts to develop drugs from Ayurvedic leads and to establish valuable synthetic technologies. Through these diverse contributions, Prof. Sukh Dev became a major source of inspiration for modern organic chemistry and natural product research.
Conventional meteorological measurements, such as temperature, humidity, pressure, and precipitation, typically operate across spatial scales ranging from large atmospheric systems to sub-millimetre observations. While spectroscopic techniques provide insights at the molecular level, isotope analysis offers an even finer-scale perspective, capturing atmospheric and oceanic processes at the atomic scale. By tracing variations in isotopic distributions across different phases, isotopic techniques allow for an unprecedented level of precision in understanding weather and climate dynamics. This article explores how stable isotope analysis of select elements unravels complex atmospheric processes, offering complementary insights to conventional meteorological methods, with a focus on weather and climate phenomena in the core monsoon zone of India.
Although the axiomatic treatment of Thermodynamics formulated by Carathéodory allows a rigorous and formal mathematical formulation of the subject; especially that of the second law, without the recourse to any imaginary machines or cycles, it has never garnered much attention from the scientific community for its abstract nature and the lack of supportive experimental evidences. However, we believe that Carathéodory’s approach in conjunction with the classical view of thermodynamics would provide a better description of the subject as it renders the concept of ‘entropy’ much less elusive.
