Five Indian Scientists Who Remain in the Twilight

3. Dr.Mansukh Wani- Creator of The Two Best Anticancer Drugs

Heard about the anticancer drug ‘Taxol’ in the recent years? Taxol was in fact extracted from the bark of the Yew tree which stands out as one the best anticancer drugs for the treatment of tumors in ovary and other organs. But the polymath behind this invention –Dr. Mansukh Wani, a Gujarat-born scientist, is known only by a few people. While working at the Research Triangle Institute, North Carolina, Dr.Wani associated with Dr. Monroe Wall to examine the structure, synthesis, and activity of Taxol. Later in 1977, he developed another anticancer drug ‘Camptothecine’ derived from the Chinese tree Camptotheca acuminate, which is widely deployed in the treatment of multiple human solid tumors.