Prof. Yoshinori Asakawa is a Japanese natural-products chemist and bryologist, who studied biology at Tokushima University before pursuing graduate studies in organic chemistry at Hiroshima University, where he obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees. During the early part of his career, he also spent two years at the Université Louis-Pasteur in Strasbourg, France, working with Professor Guy Ourisson.
Asakawa became internationally known for his pioneering research on the chemistry of bryophytes, particularly liverworts. From the early 1970s onward, he investigated their secondary metabolites, including terpenoids, aromatic compounds and bis-bibenzyls, and explored their biological activities and their significance for bryophyte classification and evolution. His work helped establish bryophyte phytochemistry and chemosystematics as important fields of research.
Much of his academic career has been associated with Tokushima Bunri University, where he worked in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Institute of Pharmacognosy. His research has combined natural-products chemistry with bryology, pharmacognosy and the search for biologically active compounds from bryophytes. He has published extensively on the chemical diversity of liverworts and other bryophytes and is one of the principal authors of the major reference work Chemical Constituents of Bryophytes: Bio- and Chemical Diversity, Biological Activity, and Chemosystematics.
In 1983, Yoshinori Asakawa and Geneva Sayre became the first recipients of the Hedwig Medal of the IAB. He has subsequently received a number of international distinctions for his research in natural-products chemistry, including the International Phytochemistry Prize and awards from the International Symposium on Essential Oils.
His career has been notable for creating a strong connection between bryology and natural-products chemistry, demonstrating the extraordinary chemical diversity of bryophytes and its relevance to taxonomy, evolution and biological activity.
