P. C. Ray: The Scientist, Swadeshi Revolutionary and the Story of Daab Sherbet

When we remember Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray, we usually think of the pioneering chemist who discovered mercurous nitrite, founded Bengal Chemicals and helped establish modern chemical research in India. Yet Ray’s life also reveals a lesser-known connection between chemistry, public health and an everyday drink - daab sherbet. The story reminds us that Ray did not regard science as an activity confined to laboratories. For him, scientific knowledge had to serve society, strengthen Indian industry and improve people’s lives.

A chemist who became a nation-builder

Born on 2 August 1861 in present-day Bangladesh, Prafulla Chandra Ray emerged as one of India’s most influential scientists. After studying chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, he returned to India and joined Presidency College, Calcutta.

Ray’s research brought him international recognition, but his ambitions extended far beyond personal achievement. In 1892, he began a small chemical enterprise that eventually developed into Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works—one of India’s earliest modern pharmaceutical and chemical companies. At a time when the Indian market was dominated by imported European products, Bengal Chemicals represented an act of scientific and economic resistance. Ray demonstrated that medicines and chemicals of reliable quality could be produced in India by Indian scientists and workers. His laboratory was therefore not merely a place of experimentation. It was also a workshop for national reconstruction.

Science during a public-health crisis

The story of daab sherbet is associated with the need for an inexpensive and accessible drink during outbreaks of cholera and other gastrointestinal illnesses. Such diseases cause severe loss of water and essential salts from the body. Before modern oral rehydration therapy became widely available, finding safe and practical ways to replace lost fluids was an urgent challenge.

Tender coconut—known as daab in Bengal—contained naturally refreshing water. However, coconut water alone was not always considered sufficient for patients who needed additional energy and salts. Ray is credited in popular accounts with developing or promoting a simple preparation that supplemented tender coconut water with ingredients such as glucose and mineral salts. The drink came to be known as daab sherbet. The idea was beautifully straightforward: take a familiar natural drink and use chemical understanding to enhance its value as a source of hydration.

It was not equivalent to the scientifically standardised oral rehydration solution used in modern medicine. Nevertheless, it reflected an important principle—effective public-health interventions need to be affordable, locally available and easy to administer.

The chemistry inside the drink

The usefulness of such a beverage can be understood through basic chemistry. Coconut water naturally contains water, sugars and electrolytes, particularly potassium, along with smaller quantities of sodium and other minerals. Additional glucose provides a readily available source of energy. When suitable salts are included in appropriate proportions, the drink can help replace some of the water and electrolytes lost during illness.

Modern oral rehydration therapy is based on the more precisely understood relationship between glucose and sodium absorption in the intestine. Therefore, daab sherbet should be viewed in its historical context rather than presented as a substitute for medically recommended oral rehydration solution. Its importance lies in the practical scientific thinking behind it: Ray recognised that chemistry could transform an ordinary local resource into something potentially useful during a health emergency.

Swadeshi expressed through science

Daab sherbet also symbolised Ray’s broader philosophy of Swadeshi. For him, self-reliance was not merely a political slogan. It required scientific institutions, indigenous industries, trained workers and products created to address Indian needs. He encouraged young Indians to become entrepreneurs, established industries, supported students and donated much of his income to educational and social causes. His austere personal life stood in striking contrast to the enormous influence he exercised as a teacher, industrialist and public intellectual.

Whether he was investigating chemical compounds, writing A History of Hindu Chemistry, building Bengal Chemicals, or responding to public health problems, Ray pursued the same underlying objective: to place knowledge in the service of society.

More than the “father of Indian chemistry”

Prafulla Chandra Ray is often called the father of modern chemistry in India. The description is deserved, but it captures only one part of his extraordinary personality. He was also an educator who created generations of researchers, an entrepreneur who challenged colonial economic dependence, a historian who recovered India’s chemical heritage and a nationalist who treated scientific enterprise as a form of public service. The story of daab sherbet presents this larger vision in a simple yet memorable form. It shows a scientist looking beyond publications and laboratories to ask a profoundly human question:

How can the knowledge of chemistry help people when they need it most?

That question remains as relevant today as it was in Ray’s time. Inspired by and adapted from the Perspective Bytes article, “PC Ray: Scientist, Revolutionary & The Creator of Daab Sherbet”.

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