Upendranath Brahmachari

Upendranath Brahmachari (19 December 1873 - 1946) synthesized Urea Stibamine (carbostibamide) in 1922 and determined that it was an effective substitute for other antimony-containing compounds in the treatment of Kala-azar (leishmaniasis).

His discovery led to saving of millions of lives in India, particularly in the erstwhile province of Assam, where several villages were completely depopulated by the devastating disease. The achievement of Dr. Brahmachari was a milestone in successful application of science in medical treatment in the years before arrival of antibiotics, when there were few specific drugs, except quinine for malaria, iron for anaemia, digitalis for heart diseases and arsenic for syphilis. All other ailments were treated symptomatically by palliative methods. Urea Stibamine was thus a significant addition to the arsenal of specific medicines.

Life
Upendranath Brahmachari was born on the 19th December 1873 in Jamalpur, Bihar. He took his B.A. degree from Hooghly Mohsin College with honours in Mathematics and Chemistry. Thereafter he went to study Medicine with Higher Chemistry. He took his Masters degree in 1894 from Presidency College, Kolkata. He took his M.B. degree in 1900 standing first in Medicine and in Surgery. He obtained his M.D. in 1902, and was awarded PhD, all from the University of Calcutta. in 1904 for his research paper on “Studies in Haemolysis”.

Upendranath joined the Provincial Medical Service in 1899, and appointed as a teacher of Pathology and Materia Medica, and physician in the Dacca Medical School in 1901. In 1905 he was appointed as a teacher in Medicine and Physician at the Campbell Medical School, Calcutta, where he carried out most of his work on Kala-azar and made his monumental discovery of Urea Stibamine. He retired from the Govt. Service as a physician in the Medical College Hospital. He was a nominee for the Nobel Prize in 1929 in the category of physiology and medicine. He was president of the 23rd session of the Indian Science Congress in 1936.