University of Calcutta. Photo: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:University_of_Calcutta_7383.JPG)
Gallery of Banasri Hazra
Jadavpur University. Photo: Gourav Ghosh, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jadavpur_University_Gate_No._4.jpg)
University of Calcutta. Photo: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:University_of_Calcutta_7383.JPG)
Banasri Hazra is an Indian chemist, pharmaceutical researcher, and educator associated with Jadavpur University. Her research has examined bioactive plant products, diospyrin and related naphthoquinones, antitumor compounds, antileishmanial agents, antimicrobial activity, and plant-based therapeutic prospects.
Background
Banasri Hazra was born on January 16, 1951, in Calcutta, now Kolkata, West Bengal, India, to Subal Sakha Mandal and Nibha (Kar) Mandal. She achieved first place among female candidates and eleventh place overall in the 1967 Higher Secondary examination. From 1967 to 1972 she held a National Science Talent Search Scholarship administered through the National Council of Educational Research and Training in New Delhi.
Her scientific career developed in the research environment of Kolkata, where Jadavpur University supported interdisciplinary work in pharmacy, chemistry, natural products, and biological activity. Her early research focused on plant-derived naphthoquinones, including diospyrin isolated from Diospyros montana, a line of work that connected phytochemistry with investigations of tumor and protozoal activity.
Education
Hazra studied chemistry, physics, and mathematics at Presidency College, Calcutta, receiving a Bachelor of Science with honors in 1970. Presidency College, founded in 1817, was one of the major institutions of modern higher education in colonial and postcolonial Bengal, with strong traditions in science and liberal learning.
She received a Master of Science degree from the University of Calcutta in 1972 and a Doctor of Philosophy from Jadavpur University in 1982. The University of Calcutta, established in 1857, became a major center for advanced scientific education in eastern India. Jadavpur University, founded in 1955 from the earlier National Council of Education, developed prominent programs in engineering, science, technology, and pharmacy; Hazra's doctoral work was connected with pharmaceutical and natural-products research.
Hazra began her professional career as a postgraduate chemistry teacher at Shyamaprasad Vidyalaya High School in Delhi from 1973 to 1974. She then worked as a technologist at Escon Consultant from 1974 to 1979. From 1979 to 1982 she was a senior research fellow with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India's national network for scientific and industrial research.
From 1983 to 1988 she worked as a postdoctoral research associate under the University Grants Commission. She became a research scientist in 1988 and was subsequently associated with Jadavpur University, where the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology provided a base for research in natural products, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and drug development. She supervised doctoral research at Jadavpur University from 1991 and taught postgraduate marine science at the University of Calcutta from 1995.
Her research examined plant-derived compounds with antitumor, antileishmanial, antiparasitic, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral potential. Early work on diospyrin and its derivatives investigated activity against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma and Leishmania donovani; later studies addressed quinonoid natural products, medicinal plants, drug-resistant organisms, radiation-related cancer biology, and plant products as possible therapeutic leads.
Hazra has also contributed to scientific publishing and academic evaluation. She served on editorial boards, including Phytotherapy Research and the ethnopharmacology section of Frontiers in Pharmacology, and examined doctoral and master's dissertations for the University of Malaya and universities in India.
Achievements
Hazra's research helped establish diospyrin and related plant-derived naphthoquinones as subjects for antitumor and antileishmanial investigation, including studies of Ehrlich ascites carcinoma and Leishmania donovani.
Her research on medicinal plants and quinonoid natural products extended to antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antiparasitic, antiviral, and cancer-related applications, linking phytochemistry with pharmacological evaluation.
Hazra contributed as an author, co-author, editor, and academic evaluator to the international exchange of research on natural products and plant-based therapeutics.
(Co-authored study of the antitumor activity of diospyrin,...)
1984
Evaluation of the antibacterial activity of Ventilago madraspatana Gaertn., Rubia cordifolia Linn. and Lantana camara Linn.: isolation of emodin and physcion as active antibacterial agents
(Co-authored evaluation of antibacterial activity in three...)
2005
Antimicrobial activity of pomegranate fruit constituents against drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis and β-lactamase producing Klebsiella pneumoniae
(Co-authored research on antimicrobial constituents of pom...)
2015
Cytotoxicity of diospyrin and its derivatives in relation to the generation of reactive oxygen species in tumour cells in vitro and in vivo
(Co-authored investigation of diospyrin derivatives, cytot...)
2007
Evaluation of nitric oxide scavenging activity, in vitro and ex vivo, of selected medicinal plants traditionally used in inflammatory diseases
(Co-authored study of nitric oxide scavenging by selected ...)
(Co-authored pharmacological study of diospyrin and synthe...)
1996
The Prospective Role of Plant Products in Radiotherapy of Cancer: A Current Overview
(Co-authored review of plant products and their prospectiv...)
2012
Membership
Hazra was a fellow and life member of the Association of UICC Fellows, connected with the International Union Against Cancer in Geneva. She was also an honorary life member of the Alumni Association of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Her professional service included participation in the Scientific Advisory Committee of the International Foundation for Science in Sweden.
Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee.
International Foundation for Science Scientific Advisory Committee
,
Sweden
Fellow and life member.
Association of UICC Fellows
,
Switzerland
Honorary life member.
Alumni Association of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
,
United Kingdom
Interests
Reading, travel, and cooking.
Music & Bands
Music.
Connections
Hazra married Swapan Kumar Hazra on November 20, 1973. Her parents were Subal Sakha Mandal and Nibha (Kar) Mandal.
