Rustom Jal Vakil (17 July 1911 – 20 November 1974) was a cardiologist from India who was awarded a Padma Bhushan for his contributions to medicine. He was the first Indian to win a Lasker Award.
Born in Bombay in 1911, Vakil completed his medical education in London.[1] He pioneered the use of reserpine to control hypertension. Reserpine is derived from Indian Snakeroot, Rauwolfia serpentina, known in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh as Pagal-ki-dawa (‘‘medicine for the insane’’) Himachal Pradesh. It was later explored as a treatment for schizophrenia.[2]
Books authored
edit- Clinical Diagnosis
- Textbook of Medicine
- The romance of healing and other essays
- Heart in Health and Disease
Awards received
edit- 1958 Padma Bhushan
- 1959 International Albert Lasker Award
- 1965 Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Award
- 1969 B.C.Roy Award
- 1971 The V World Congress of Cardiology Souvenir Award by the Cardiological Society of India
- 1973 The First Dhanwantari Award
References
edit- ^ "History of Medicine" (PDF). Medind.nic.in. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 August 2014. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
- ^ "Mechanisms of neurotransmitter release by amphetamines : A Review" (PDF). Sulzerlab.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 October 2020. Retrieved 13 October 2013.