Ana Aslan

Was born on 1 January 1897 in Brăila, was a Romanian biologist and physician
who discovered the anti-aging effects, based on the drugs Gerovital H3 and Aslavital,
which she developed.
She is considered to be a pioneer of gerontology and geriatrics in Romania. In
1952, she founded the Geriatric Institute of Bucharest. This institute was the first of its
kind in the world and was recognized by the World Health Organization.
At the age of 13, her father died, and her family then moved to Bucharest,
Romania. It was in Bucharest where she began her studies. She graduated from the
Central School of Bucharest in 1915.
The premature death of her father, whom she was close to, was said to be the
reason she wanted to become a physician. Although the medical field was not a desirable
field for women to enter, Ana Aslan decided that was the path she wanted to pursue and
attended the Faculty of Medicine from 1915 to 1922. During her time in undergraduate
studies, she attended to soldiers as a nurse during the First World War.
After graduating from the Faculty of Medicine in 1922, she began working with
Daniel Danielopolu who supervised her doctoral thesis. Her focus was on physiology and
the process of aging. While experimenting on the effects that procaine had on arthritis,
Aslan discovered other beneficial effects of this drug. It was this discovery that led to a
three-year study and eventual invention of her drug called Gerovital (H3), which she
prescribed for the effects of aging.
Over a period of two years, blood samples were taken from 15,000 people, with
some of them receiving Gerovital and some receiving a placebo. 40% of the people who
took Gerovital had less sick-leave days, and mortality rate from the flu epidemic was
13% in placebo patients while only being 2.7% in patients who took the drug. In 1976,
with a pharmacist named Elena Polovrăgeanu, they invented another drug named
Aslavital, which was a similar drug to Gerovital aimed to delay the skin aging process,
improve the hair aspect, better memory, and a general feeling of well.

Ana Aslan received many international distinctions for her research activity, for
example:
 "Cross of Merit" – First Class of the Order of Merit, Germany, 1971
 "Cavalier de la Nouvelle Europe" Prize Oscar, Italy, 1973
 "Les Palmes Academiques", France, 1974
 "Honorary Foreign Citizen and Honorary Professor of Sciences", Philippines,
1978
 "Member Honoris Causa" Diploma of the Bohemo-Slovakian Society of
Gerontology, 1981
 "Leon Bernard" Prize, important distinction granted by the World Health
Organization upon nomination and endorsement by officials of a member state (in
this case by the Romanian Nicolae Ceauşescu) for contributing to the development
of gerontology and geriatrics, 1982.
Ana Aslan died on 20 May 1988 (aged 91) in Bucharest, Romania.