Prem Narain Saxena (15 October 1925 – 29 November 1999) was the Founder Professor and Chairman Department of Pharmacology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, India. Being a distinguished pharmacologist of the country, he made several notable contributions in traditional medicine and Neuropharmacology. His demonstration of wound healing property of Curcuma longa was a major contributor to India's successful challenge of the US Patent on wound healing property of Haldi. He was intimately involved in discovery and pre-clinical development of the non-barbiturate hypnotic Methaqualone. His basic studies have helped in understanding the role of various neurotransmitters in thermoregulation. He also standardized the use of Setaria cervi for discovery of new anti-filarial agents.[1]
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Professor Prem Narain Saxena was born on 15 October 1925 in a respected family of a village Bithri-chainpur of Bareilly. It was a joint orthodox family village.
Dr. Saxena was the first child of his parents Mr. Raghunandan Prasad and Mrs. Saraswati Devi, apart from three other sisters. He married Ms Rajeshwari Saxena, MA (LT), a working lady but latterly left the job and remained as housewife [2].
Dr. P. N. Saxena took early education first in his hometown village Bithri-chainpur. He then shifted to Dehradun at an early age of 6–7 years to take admission in the first standard as his father was posted already in Dehradun as ‘Accountant’ in the Department of Irrigation. Dr. Saxena was a very brilliant student since school days despite of malnutrition, rickets and typhoid. He topped with first position both in matriculation from AP Mission School and Intermediate from DAV College of Dehradun. In the very first attempt, he qualified medical entrance and did MBBS with 10th position from the King George Medical College, Lucknow (now Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University) in 1947. He did (MD) (Medicine) in 1950 and (MD) (Pharmacology) in 1952 again from the King George Medical College, Lucknow. In addition, he completed his PhD from the Patna University, Patna, in 1963 and DSc from the Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, in 1978[3].
He joined the Department of Pharmacology of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, on April 14, 1964 as Professor and Founder Chairman Department of Pharmacology. He served as Head Department of Pharmacology till September 30, 1985 and in view of his outstanding merits, he was reemployed by the University for two years that is till September 30, 1987. Soon after retirement, he was selected as emeritus scientist of ICMR, New Delhi, for a period from September 1, 1987, which he served till September 14, 1990. On January 31, 1991, the University appointed him as Professor Emeritus. He was amongst the few scientists in the university, who was offered this ‘Professor Emeritus’.
He is nationally and internationally known as a leading Neuro-pharmacologist as he worked mostly in the field of neuroscience. He was awarded the Fellowship of Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in USA during 1960-61; Commonwealth Medical Fellowship and then Wellcome Research Fellowship in England during 1970s. In London at the National Institute for Medical Research, he worked on mechanism of action of Pyrogen and in the field of thermoregulation, with Wilhelm Feldberg (1900–1993), a renowned German-British-Jewish pharmacologist and biologist. Wilhelm Feldberg assisted many research workers who came to England as a part of their Commonwealth Medical Fellowship and Wellcome Research Fellowship. Under this Fellowships, Prof. PN Saxena during 1970s got many papers published together with Wilhelm Feldberg. Most of these reprints of their research papers are preserved in the Library of Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sciences, Aligarh, India[4].
Prof PN Saxena has to his credit, approximately 145 published research papers. He wrote Hospital Formulary in 1969 and a book-cum-manual for practical pharmacy and experimental pharmacology laboratory. After having served the university as professor and head of the department of pharmacology, he was retired from the active service on September 30, 1987. In the university, he had also acted as Dean, Faculty of Medicine, In-charge, Animal House and on few occasions as acting Principal Ajmal Khan Tibbiya College and acting Vice Chancellor of the University. As a Professor Emeritus, he continued his active research in the Department of Pharmacology till late December 1994 but due to illness of his wife (suffering from cancer and ultimately died on March 19, 1996); he did not manage to visit the department regularly and discontinued all his academic services from 1995.
He had been founding member of many academic bodies such Indian Pharmacological Society, Association of Physiologists and Pharmacologists of India, Indian Medical Association, Indian Academy of Neurosciences and Indian Association for the Advancement of Medical Education in India. Indian National Science Academy (INSA) elected him Fellow (FNA) in 1987.[5]
Dr. Saxena was very simple, kindhearted and pious. He used laboratory animals (dogs, rabbit, frog, mice) very gently and was very kind towards all the staff of the medical college.
Dr. PN Saxena succumbed to death due to 2nd stroke on November 29, 1999. He was admitted to KK Hospital, Aligarh before death. He was fond of Urdu and Persian poetry and maintained a diary where he used to write his favourite couplets of Urdu poetry. His mother tongue was Urdu. He had a good friends’ circle in academics. To name a few, Professors RD Myers, C. von Euler, Wilhelm Feldberg, WJ Lang, A Herxheimer, Richard J. Schain, KP Bhargava, MB Waller, Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman, WR Martin, Eleanor Zaimis (recipient of Gairdner Foundation International Award in 1959), JN Sinha, BN Dhawan, were the most closest colleagues.
Coincidentally, his both of the parents Mr. Raghunandan Prasad and Mrs. Saraswati Devi were died in Aligarh due to paralytic attack. Dr. Saxena invited them in Aligarh to stay with his family. Amongst the three sisters of Dr. Saxena, Ms. Usha Saxena was married to Mr. P. C. Saxena, Former Director, Animal Husbandry, Uttar Pradesh Government, Lucknow; Kamla Saxena was married to Dr. R. C. Gaud (Former Professor of History, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh) and Bimla Saxena is still a teacher of repute at Udai Singh Jain College, Aligarh.
Dr. PN Saxena had two daughters and one son. The eldest daughter Ms Poonam, who did Engineering Course from Zakir Hussain College of Engineering and Technology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, is married to a Physician, working presently at BHEL, Delhi; his son Dr. Pankaj Saxena did MBBS from Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, AMU, Aligarh and now working his own private MRI Instruments, Chicago (USA). The youngest daughter Dr. Indu Saxena, who did PhD in Biochemistry from AMU, Aligarh and her husband Dr. Manoj Kumar (Medical physiologist) are working in Sri Ram Murti Smarak Institute of Medical Sciences, Bareilly.