Since 1976, I have been actively engaged in Bio-organic chemistry & pharmaceutical development research. We have made significant contributions in the fascinating area of alkaloid and alkaloid biosynthesis. During the course of work a number of biologically active alkaloids have been isolated from Indian medicinal plants. I have traced the biosynthetic pathways, in living plants, of proaporphines, normal and abnormal aporphines, tetrahydroprotoberberines, 1-benzylisoquino-lines, bisbenzylisoquinolines, aporphine-benzylisoqinolines, biphenylbisbenzylisoquinolines, morphinandienone, abnormal Erythrina, quaternary aporphines, dibenz [d,f] azonine bases, ipecac--carbolines, phthaldeisoquinolines, spirobenzylisoquinolines, morphine alkaloids and aristolochic acid. Using labeled enantiomeric precursors, I have demonstrated the stereospecificity of enzyme reactions in biosynthesis and introduced a novel method for determining the absolute configuration of biphenylbisbenzylisoquinolines and tetrahydroprotoberberine alkaloids. Very little is known about the potentiality of higher plants to carry out transformations of organic molecules, which they do not normally produce. This area of research is relatively unexplored in higher plants. Therefore, it was decided to carry out the biotransformations of unnatural 1-benzyl-isoquinolines into unnatural aporphines, papaverines and tetrahydroprotoberberines. The results indicated that many enzymes in plants are non-specific and are able to catalyse the biosynthesis of unnatural alkaloids from unnatural precursors. We have recently carried out the biosynthetic studies in cell-free extract from plants to overcome the permeability barrier that exists within and between the cells. The results demonstrated the superiority of using cell-free extract over the feeding techniques in intact living plants. A high yield conversion of many precursors into the natural products has been achieved. We have carried out work on a project on biosynthesis of Biologically active compounds of Neem funded by DST, New Delhi. Several meliacines have been isolated and the cell free synthesis of an antkifeedant compound nimbine has been carried out. There are some common chemical reactions that occur both in plants and animals. We have demonstrated the transformations of 1-benzyltetrahydroisoquinoline into abnormal Erythrina, aporphines and tetrahydroprotoberberine alkaloids in cell- free homogenate obtained from animal tissues. We have developed a novel reagent for the synthesis of 2-acetoxyglycals. The sysnthesis of some nucleosides with their biological properties have been done. We have isolated and synthesize a number of compounds from marine animals with antimplantation activity. Recently we have studied the antioxidant activity of various Indian plants with the identification of biologically active compounds. Phytochemical investigation of essential oil containing plants has also been done with evaluation of biological activity. Modern spectroscopic techniques such as FT NMR , Mass, Radiation counter, ultracentrifugation. etc. were used for these studies. The results of the above studies have been published in journals of International repute.

Natural Products, Medicinal Chemistry, Bioorganic Chemistry, Computational Analysis along with Biosynthesis.