Examine individual changes

'{{Short description|Indian botanist (1897–1984)}} {{About|the Indian botanist|the wife of [[Srinivasa Ramanujan]]|Janakiammal|the politician|K.P. Janaki Ammal}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} {{Use Indian English|date=April 2020}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Janaki Ammal | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1897|11|4}} | birth_place = [[Tellicherry]], [[Madras Presidency]], [[British India]] | death_date = {{Death date|df=yes|1984|2|7}} (aged 86) | death_place = [[Madras]], Tamil Nadu | nationality = Indian | field = [[Botany]], [[Cell biology|Cytology]] | awards = [[Padma Shri 1977]] | spouse = | work_institution = [[Madras University]], [[John Innes Centre]] | alma_mater = [[University of Michigan]] | thesis_title = Chromosome Studies in Nicandra physaloides | doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_students = | known_for = | prizes = | signature = Janaki_Ammal's_signature.png | footnotes = | image = Janaki Ammal.jpg }} '''Janaki Ammal Edavalath Kakkat''' (4 November 1897 – 7 February 1984) was an Indian [[botanist]] who worked on plant breeding, [[cytogenetics]] and [[phytogeography]].<ref name=ias>{{cite web|last=C.V|first=Subramanyan|title=Janaki Ammal|url=http://www.ias.ac.in/womeninscience/Janaki.pdf|publisher=Indian Association of Scientists|access-date=20 October 2012}}</ref> Her most notable work involved studies on [[sugarcane]] and the [[eggplant]] (brinjal). She also worked on the cytogenetics of a range of plants and co-authored the ''Chromosome Atlas of Cultivated Plants'' (1945) with [[C. D. Darlington|C.D. Darlington]]. She took an interest in ethnobotany and in plants of medicinal and economic value from the rain forests of [[Kerala]], India. She was awarded a [[Padma Shri]] by the Indian government in 1977. ==Biography== E.K Janaki was born to EK Krishnan(Sub Judge) and Devi Kuruvayi. Her father was working as a sub judge in Madras presidency. Both her parents are from Tellichery, Kerala present district of Kannur.<ref>[http://vvm.org.in/study_material/Dr.%20E.%20K.%20Janaki%20Ammal%20-%20Eng.pdf ''The Mother of Modern Botany in India, A Biographical Journey of Dr Edavalath Kakkat Janaki Ammal'']</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Damodaran|first1=Vinita|year=2013|title=Gender, Race and Science in Twentieth-Century India: E. K. Janaki Ammal and the History of Science|journal=History of Science|volume=51|issue=3|pages=283–307|doi=10.1177/007327531305100302|bibcode=2013HisSc..51..283D|s2cid=142770928}}</ref> Janaki did her primary schooling at Sacred Heart Convent in Thalassery followed by Queen Mary's College as a Christian, Madras. She obtained an Honours degree in Botany from the Presidency College and then moved to the University of Michigan in 1924, obtaining a masters degree for a few years, returned to the University of Michigan as an Oriental Barbour Fellow and obtained a PhD in 1931. Her thesis was titled "Chromosome Studies in Nicandra Physaloides". The University also awarded her an honorary LLD in 1956. On her return, she became Professor of Botany at the Maharaja’s College of Science in Trivandrum (Now, University College,Trivandrum) and served there as Assistant Professor for two years between 1932 and 1934. Janaki then joined the John Innes Institute, Merton, London, where she worked with C D. Darlington, who would become a long-term collaborator. She then worked at the Sugarcane Breeding Institute in Coimbatore and worked with [[Charles Alfred Barber|C.A. Barber]]. Her worked involved the production of hybrids including several intergeneric crosses including the variety SG 63-32.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal|year=1985|title=In Memoriam: Dr E.K. Janaki Ammal (1897-1984)|url=http://www.nelumbo-bsi.org/index.php/nlmbo/article/viewFile/74814/58227|journal=Bulletin of the Botanical Survey of India|volume=27|issue=1–4|pages=265–268|author=Nayar, M.P.}}</ref> In 1939 she went to attend the 7th International Congress of Genetics, Edinburgh and was forced to stay on due to World War II. She then spent the next six years at the [[John Innes Centre]] as an assistant cytologist to C.D. Darlington. Together they published a  ''Chromosome Atlas of Cultivated Plants'' in 1945. She was invited to work as a cytologist at the Royal Horticultural Society, Wisley from 1945 to 1951. During this period she studied Magnolias, their cytology and conducted experiment on their hybridization. The Indian government invited her to reorganize the Botanical Survey of India, and she was appointed as the first director of the Central Botanical Laboratory at [[Allahabad]]. From 1962, she served as an officer on special duty at Regional Research Laboratory in [[Jammu]].<ref name=":0" /> She lived and worked in the Centre’s Field Laboratory at [[Maduravoyal]] until her demise in February 1984.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Muthiah|first=S.|date=2015-10-10|title=Madras miscellany: The Chinese in the Nilgiris|language=en-IN|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/society/madras-miscellany-the-chinese-in-the-nilgiris-and-queen-marys-distinguished-alumni/article7747270.ece|access-date=2020-08-21|issn=0971-751X}}</ref> ==Research== As an expert in cytogenetics, Janaki joined the Sugarcane Breeding Station at Coimbatore to work on sugarcane biology. At that time, the sweetest sugarcane in the world was the Saccharum officianarum variety from Papua New Guinea and India imported it from Southeast Asia. In a bid to improve India’s indigenous sugarcane varieties, the Sugarcane Breeding Station had been set up at Coimbatore in the early 1920s. By manipulating polyploid cells through cross-breeding of hybrids in the laboratory, Janaki was able to create a high yielding strain of the sugarcane that would thrive in Indian conditions. Her research also helped analyse the geographical distribution of sugarcane across India, and to establish that the Saccharum Spontaneum variety of sugarcane had originated in India. However, her status as a single woman from a caste considered backward created irreconcilable problems for Janaki among her male peers at Coimbatore. Facing caste and gender based discrimination. Impressed by her work, the Royal Horticulture Society invited Janaki to work as an assistant cytologist at their campus at Wisley, near Kew Gardens, famous for its collection of plants from around the world. During the years she spent in England, Janaki did chromosome studies of a wide range of garden plants. Her studies on chromosome numbers and [[ploidy]] in many cases threw light on the evolution of species and varieties. ''The Chromosome Atlas of Cultivated Plants'' which she wrote jointly with C. D. Darlington in 1945 was a compilation that incorporated much of her own work on many species. At the Society, one of the plants she worked on was the magnolia. To this day, in the Society’s campus at Wisley there are magnolia shrubs she planted and among them is a variety with small white flowers named after her: Magnolia Kobus Janaki Ammal. A flower celebrated in Japanese and Chinese legends, the blooms of this variety are made up of fused sepals and petals called ‘tepals’. Today, only a few nurseries in Europe cultivate the variety. Janaki also worked on the genera [[Solanum]], [[Datura]], [[Mentha]], [[Cymbopogon]] and [[Dioscorea]] besides medicinal and other plants. She attributed the higher rate of plant [[Speciation (genetic algorithm)|speciation]] in the cold and humid northeast [[Himalaya]]s as compared to the cold and dry northwest Himalayas to [[polyploidy]].<ref>Janaki Ammal .E.K. The effect of the Himalayan uplift on the genetic composition of the flora of Asia. 1960. Indian botan. Soc., 39: 327-334</ref> Also, according to her, the confluence of Chinese and Malayan elements in the flora of northeast India led to natural hybridisation between these and the native flora in this region, contributing further to plant diversification. Following her retirement,Janaki continued to publish the original findings of her research focusing special attention on medicinal plants and [[ethnobotany]]. In the Madras University Field Laboratory where she lived and worked she developed a garden of medicinal plants. As a geneticist working for the Royal Horticultural Society's Garden Wisley in the early 1950s, Dr. Janaki was investigating the effects of [[colchicine]] on a number of woody plants, including Magnolia, where a stock solution in water is made up and applied to the growing tip of young seedlings once the [[cotyledons]] (seed leaves) have fully expanded. Doubling of chromosomes occurs, giving the cells twice the usual number. The resulting plants have heavier textured leaves; their flowers are variable, often with thicker tepals, helping them last longer. As Magnolia kobus seeds were available in quantity, a number of seedlings were treated by Dr Janaki Ammal and ultimately planted on Battleston Hill at Wisley.{{cn|date=March 2020}} ==Awards and honours== Janaki is mentioned among Indian Americans of the Century in an India Currents magazine article published on 1 January 2000, by S.Gopikrishna & Vandana Kumar: "In an age when most women didn't make it past high school, would it be possible for an Indian woman to obtain a PhD at one of America's finest public universities and also make seminal contributions to her field?!" Kerala-born Janaki was arguably the first woman to obtain a PhD in botany in the U.S. (1931), and remains one of the few Asian women to be conferred a DSc (honoris causa) by her alma mater, the University of Michigan. During her time at Ann Arbor she lived in the [[Martha Cook Building]], an all-female residence hall and worked with [[Harley Harris Bartlett]], Professor at the Department of Botany.{{cn|date=March 2020}} She was elected Fellow of the [[Indian Academy of Sciences]] in 1935, and of the [[Indian National Science Academy]] in 1957. The University of Michigan conferred an honorary LL.D. on her in 1956 in recognition of her contributions to botany and cytogenetics said: "Blest with the ability to make painstaking and accurate observations, she and her patient endeavours stand as a model for serious and dedicated scientific workers." The Government of India conferred the [[Padma Shri]] on her in 1977.<ref name="Padma Shri">{{cite web |url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |title=Padma Shri |publisher=Padma Shri |date=2015 |access-date=23 June 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6U68ulwpb?url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |archive-date=15 November 2014 }}</ref> The Ministry of Environment and Forestry of the Government of India instituted the National Award of Taxonomy in her name in 2000.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} She produced many hybrid brinjals (Indian name for eggplant).<ref>The Michigan Alumnus, Volume 42, Page 532, UM libraries 1935</ref><ref>E.K. Janaki Ammal. A polyploid egg plant, Solanum melongena L. Papers of Michigan Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, 15:81.</ref><ref>E. K. Janaki Ammal. Polyploidy in Solanum Melongena Linn. CYTOLOGIA. Vol. 5 (1933-1934) No. 4 P 453-459</ref> Two awards were instituted in her name in 1999: EK Janaki Ammal National Award on Plant Taxonomy and EK Janaki Ammal National Award on Animal Taxonomy.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://scroll.in/article/730186/remembering-dr-janaki-ammal-pioneering-botanist-cytogeneticist-and-passionate-gandhian|title=Remembering Dr Janaki Ammal, pioneering botanist, cytogeneticist and passionate Gandhian|last=Doctor|first=Geeta|website=Scroll.in|language=en-US|access-date=2020-02-26}}</ref> There is herbarium with over 25000 plant species in [[Jammutawi]] named after Janaki Ammal.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/long-ignored-renowned-botanist-janaki-ammal-finally-recognised-biography-102823|title=Long ignored, renowned botanist Janaki Ammal finally recognised in biography|website=Newsminute|access-date=2020-02-26}}</ref> The [[John Innes Centre]] offers a scholarship to PhD students from developing countries in her name.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jic.ac.uk/training-careers/postgraduat-opportunities/janaki-ammal-scholarships/|title=Janaki Ammal Scholarships|website=John Innes Centre|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-02-26}}</ref> ==Plants in her name== To honour her work in plant breeding, the Royal Horticultural Society, Wisley, U.K.named a variety of Magnolia she created as [https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/140625/Magnolia-kobus-Janaki-Ammal/Details Magnolia Kobus Janaki Ammal].<ref>{{Cite news|last=M.K.|first=Nidheesh|url=https://www.livemint.com/news/india/janaki-ammal-the-pioneering-female-botanist-who-sweetened-a-nation-1564945346360.html/|title=Janaki Ammal, the pioneering female botanist who 'sweetened a nation'|date=2019-08-06|work=The Mint|access-date=2020-09-28|language=en-IN|issn=0971-751X}}</ref> In 2018, to celebrate her remarkable career and contribution to plant science, two Indian plant breeders, Girija and Viru Viraraghavan bred a new rose variety which they named '''E.K. Janaki Ammal'''.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Kannan|first=Ramya|url=https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/a-glorious-yellow-bloom-in-honour-of-botanist-e-k-janaki-ammal/article27699225.ece|title=A glorious yellow bloom in honour of botanist E.K. Janaki Ammal|date=2019-06-08|work=The Hindu|access-date=2020-02-25|language=en-IN|issn=0971-751X}}</ref> The name Janakia arayalpathra is given in honour of Janaki Ammal, and the specific epithet arayalpathra refers to the resemblance of this species leaves with that of Ficus religosa.arayal= peepal tree (Malayalam) and pathra= leaf in Sanskrit. <ref>{{Cite news|last=Joseph|first=Chandrasekaran|url=https://pascal-francis.inist.fr/vibad/index.php?action=getRecordDetail&idt=PASCAL7910448590|title=Janakia arayalpathra, A new genus and species of Periplocaceae from Kerala, South India|date=1978-01-06|work=Pascal and Francis Bibliographic Databases|access-date=2020-09-28|language=en-IN|issn=0971-751X}}</ref> ==References== {{reflist}} ==Other sources== *S Kedharnath, Edavaleth Kakkat Janaki Ammal (1897–1984), ''Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy'', 13, pp.&nbsp;90–101, with portrait (1988). *P Maheshwari and R N Kapil, ''Fifty Years of Science in India. Progress of Botany'', Indian Science Congress Association, Calcutta, pp.&nbsp;110, 118 (1963). *Damodaran, Vinita (2017). "Janaki Ammal, C. D. Darlington and J. B. S. Haldane: Scientific Encounters at the End of Empire", Journal of Genetics, 96 (5), 827–836. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12041-017-0844-1 *James, Nirmala (2019). "Janaki Ammal, Aadhya Indian SasyaSasthranja", (Biography of Janaki Ammal), Bhasha Institute (State Institute of Languages), Department of Culture, Government of Kerala, SIL 4606, ISBN 976-61-200-4606-1. Editor: N. S. Arunkumar. ==External links== * http://envfor.nic.in/content/e-k-janaki-ammal-national-award-taxonomy * http://scroll.in/article/730186/remembering-dr-janaki-ammal-pioneering-botanist-cytogeneticist-and-passionate-gandhian * http://www.oneindia.com/2006/10/09/janaki-ammal-award-to-osmania-and-punjabi-university-scientists-1160406282.html * http://www.iisc.ernet.in/currsci/jan252007/260.pdf * http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/wahidulrehman-2252516-life-work-janaki-ammal-powerpoint-presentation/ * https://www.jic.ac.uk/training-careers/postgraduate-opportunities/janaki-ammal-scholarships/ {{Authority control}} {{Padma Shri Award Recipients in Science & Engineering}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Ammal, E. K. Janaki}} [[Category:1897 births]] [[Category:1984 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century Indian biologists]] [[Category:Indian women botanists]] [[Category:Indian geneticists]] [[Category:Women geneticists]] [[Category:Phytogeographers]] [[Category:Scientists from Kerala]] [[Category:University of Michigan alumni]] [[Category:19th-century Indian women]] [[Category:19th-century Indian people]] [[Category:People from Thalassery]] [[Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri in science & engineering]] [[Category:Indian women biologists]] [[Category:20th-century Indian women scientists]] [[Category:Women scientists from Kerala]]'