Asima Chatterjee (née Mookerjee) was born on 23 September 1917 in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. She was the eldest of the two children of a medical doctor Indra Narayan Mukherjee and his wife, Kamala Devi. Chatterjee grew up in Calcutta in a middle-class family where she was encouraged to get an education.
Her father was very interested in botany and Chatterjee shared in his interest. Asima Chatterjee graduated with honors in chemistry from the Scottish Church College of the University of Calcutta in 1936.
Asima Chatterjee received a master's degree (1938) and a doctoral degree (1944) in organic chemistry from the University of Calcutta. Her doctoral research focused on the chemistry of plant products and synthetic organic chemistry. Among her notable instructors at the time were Prafulla Chandra Roy and Satyendra Nath Bose.
Asima Chatterjee had research experience from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Caltech with László Zechmeister. Chatterjee's research concentrated on natural products chemistry and resulted in anti-convulsive, anti-malarial, and chemotherapy drugs. She spent around forty years researching various alkaloid compounds.Asima Chatterjee also discovered anti-epileptic activity in Marsilea minuta and anti-malarial activity in the plants Alstonia scholaris, Swertia chirata, Picrorhiza kurroa and Caesalpinia crista. These agents, however, have not been shown to be clinically competitive with the medications currently used for these conditions. Her work led to the development of an epilepsy drug called Ayush-56 and several anti-malarial drugs.
Asima Chatterjee also wrote around 400 papers which were published in both national and international journals.
In 1972, Asima Chatterjee was appointed as the Honorary Coordinator of the Special Assistance Programme to intensify teaching and research in natural product chemistry, sanctioned by the Indian University Grants Commission.
In 1975, she was conferred the prestigious Padma Bhushan and became the first female scientist to be elected as the General President of the Indian Science Congress Association.
Asima Chatterjee was nominated by the President of India as a Member of the Rajya Sabha from February 1982 to May 1990.
In 1960, Asima Chatterjee was elected a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi.
