D. S. Bhakuni, born on 30 December 1930 in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, graduated in chemistry from Allahabad University and completed his master's degree at the same institution.[5] He started his career in 1958 as a teaching faculty but a year later, joined Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Lucknow and worked there for three years. His next move was to National Botanical Research Institute in 1962 but later went to the UK to pursue his doctoral studies. He secured a Phd in 1965 from the University of London under the guidance of Sir Derek BartonofImperial College London, a renowned organic chemist and 1969 Nobel laureate; his thesis being Studies in alkaloid biosynthesis.[7] He would also receive the degree of Doctor of Science from London University in 1978. Returning to India, he joined CDRI in 1965 where he spent the rest of his official career till his superannuation in 1990 as a director general-grade scientist. In between, he had a stint at University of Concepción, Chile as a visiting professor. Post-retirement, he was selected as an emeritus scientist by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.[5] Bhakuni died on 22 April 2021, at the age of 90.[8]
Bhakuni, during the course of his active researches, studied the structure and stereochemistry of several indigenous plants and synthesized them for finding out the biologically active compounds; his work on the biogenesis of alkaloids was based on these examinations.[9] These studies are known to be pioneering studies on alkaloid biosynthesis and he developed a new methodology for determining the absolute configuration of alkaloids.[5] Thus, he was able to identify the anti-cancer, anti-leishmanial, anti-viral and anti-allergic properties of a number of plants through mass spectrometric and Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy techniques.[5]
Bhakuni documented his researches in a book, Bioactive Marine Natural Products[10] and over 300 articles published in peer-reviewed journals.[note 1] His writings have been cited by several authors[note 2] and he has mentored 40 doctoral scholars in their studies. A multidisciplinary program, under the title, Bioactive Substances from Indian Ocean was initiated by him during his days at the Central Drug Research Institute which is still active. He is a former president of the Indian Chemical Society (1996–97) and the Sectional Committee of Indian Science Congress Association (1994) and sat in the council of the Indian National Sciences Academy from 1982 to 1984.[5]
Dewan S. Bhakuni; Awadhesh N. Singh; Sudha Jain (1980). "Biosynthesis of isotetrandrine". Tetrahedron. 36 (14): 2149–2151. doi:10.1016/0040-4020(80)80107-4.
PP Gupta; RC Srimal; K Avasthi; N Garg; T Chandra; DS Bhakuni (1995). "Antiallergic activity of alkyl substituted pyrazolo [3, 4-d] pyrimidine (compound 88-765)". Indian Journal of Experimental Biology. 33 (1): 38–40. PMID9135673.
