Heinz Schilcher (pharmacist)

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Heinz Schilcher

Heinz Schilcher (born February 21, 1930 in Burgheim ; † June 17, 2015 in Immenstadt im Allgäu ) was a German pharmacist and university professor who advocated the field of phytotherapy . Through his work he contributed to the fact that phytotherapy was recognized in scientific medicine. He is considered the "father of a reproducible phytopharmaceutical quality".

life and work

Youth and training

Heinz Schilcher was the first of three children of the master miller and mill owner Josef Schilcher and his wife Anna, née. Grünthaner, born in Burgheim near Neuburg. He attended elementary school in Bittenbrunn near Neuburg. In 1941 he attended high school for boys, and later the Descartes grammar school in Neuburg an der Donau .

After the end of the war there was no school for a year, during which time he did a kind of “internship” in his father's mill. In 1950, Heinz Schilcher passed his Abitur at Descartes Gymnasium. From 1950 to 1952 an internship followed in the hospital pharmacy of the Barmherzigen Brüder in Neuburg. During the internship, Schilcher u. a. with the production of dosage forms for the naturopathic department of the hospital and completed a six-month medical internship to also experience patients and study drug effects on them.

From 1952 to 1956 he studied pharmacy at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . In 1956 he passed the state examination in pharmacy at the LMU Munich and did his doctorate under Ludwig Hörhammer by May 1959 on the subject of knowledge of the ingredients of Lycopus europaeus L. and Lycopus virginicus L. (Wolfstrappkraut) and their effects on hyperthyroidism at the Institute for Pharmaceutical Drug Science. As part of this doctorate, the first total chromatographic analysis of the plant extract was carried out, which tested for flavonoids , hydroxycinnamic acids , tannins , 4-hydroxycoumarins, amino acids , alkaloids , essential oils , polysaccharides and minerals (e.g. fluorides). The institute also introduced the first biological test to test its effectiveness and effectiveness. The antigonadotropic effect was researched on tadpoles . During his doctorate, he also studied medicine for four semesters.

After completing his doctorate, Heinz Schilcher carried out a chromatographically oriented phytochemical internship on behalf of Prof. Hörhammer , the world's first phytochemical student internship within the pharmacy course. He was shaped early by Rudolf Fritz Weiss , who through his life's work led herbal medicine from an initially purely empirical medicine to a systematic and thus teachable and learnable method. Heinz Schilcher continued this development in contact with Weiss.

Further professional development

In 1963 Heinz Schilcher as head of the scientific department and production and control manager in the company Salus one. From 1963 to 1974 Schilcher developed 75 phytopharmaceuticals and carried out pharmacological and clinical tests on more than twenty herbal preparations. In 1964, a proposal for standardized phytopharmaceuticals ( chamomile , hawthorn , St. John's wort ) was first published worldwide on the basis of chromatographic fingerprints, supplemented by physical measurement parameters. Since then, Heinz Schilcher has been referred to in the literature as the “father of phytopharmaceutical standardization”. From 1968 to 2003, Heinz Schilcher was a publicly appointed and sworn expert for drugs and drug preparations at the chambers of industry and commerce in Munich, Stuttgart and Berlin.

In 1973 he was appointed professor at the University of Marburg , where he stayed until 1977. From 1978 Heinz Schilcher taught at the University of Tübingen and was a full-time member of the management of the Fink company in Herrenberg with the production, development and research division.

In 1983, Heinz Schilcher accepted the call to the Free University of Berlin as professor, dean of the Department of Pharmacy (1986–1989) and managing director of the Institute for Pharmaceutical Biology, an office he held until his retirement in 1995.

Since 1995, Schilcher has held the position of a member of the board of the scientific advisory board of the Central Association of Doctors for Naturopathic and Regulatory Medicine eV (ZAEN) and of the advisory board for the medical journal for naturopathic treatments. In 2005, Heinz Schilcher was appointed 1st Chairman of the Expert Commission for Traditionally Used Medicines according to Section 109a AMG .

The interdisciplinary scientific preoccupation with the cultivation, extraction, storage and processing of medicinal and aromatic plants, the analysis of plant ingredients and their suitability for quality testing, as well as the standardization of phytopharmaceuticals to pharmacological or experimental and clinical studies of natural substances and herbal preparations formed the focus of his work and is documented in around 300 publications and 19 textbooks and handbooks (as author or co-author).

Focus of scientific activity

Heinz Schilcher's research focused on:

  • Proposals for the standardization of phytopharmaceuticals, first author of the terms Coeffectors (1965), Leitsubstanzen (1977) and Ingredients Co-determining Efficacy (1995)
  • Analysis of undesired drug contamination (pesticides, heavy metals, ethylene oxide, microbial contamination, drug pests) and suggestions for reducing the contamination
  • Essential oils from the plant to clinical use, particularly intensive study of chamomile flowers, documented in three textbooks and handbooks
  • Development and testing of effective phytopharmaceuticals as finished medicinal products

The flagship among the numerous book chapters and books is his textbook Leitfaden Phytotherapie , which he published with Susanne Kammerer at Urban & Fischer Verlag in 2000. In 2010 the fourth edition of this 1200-page work was published under the editorship of Schilcher, Kammerer and Wegener. Schilcher himself describes this book as his life's work. In the professional world, the guide is referred to as the "Bible" of phytotherapy. The main purpose of his books was and is always the relation of the medicinal plant to the application in medical practice.

Private

family

From 1960 to 1977 Heinz Schilcher was married to the pharmacist Renate Schilcher, and their son Stefan was born in 1961.

Since 1982 he was married to the pharmacist Barbara Schilcher, who supported him in his scientific work.

Canoeing

  • 1947–1952 Schilcher competed in canoe races for the Donau-Ruder-Club Neuburg, from 1953–1980 for the Munich gymnastics community (TGM).

Heinz Schilcher won numerous medals and was Bavarian and South German champion in white water racing . He was a member of the German national team for three years. In 1956 Schilcher became British white water champion. He succeeded three times in winning the canoe ski race in Mittenwald (Dammkar) and in Scharnitz (Obere Isar), he also won a canoe ski race in the Allgäu (Schönblick / Breitach).

From 1962 Schilcher was active as a sports official, eight years as Vice President and four years as President of the Bavarian Canoe Association . At the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972, Schilcher headed the competition office on the Oberschleißheim regatta course . As an international referee, he was used by the International Canoe Federation eight times at Canoe World Championships .

Skiing

  • 1949–1952: Participation in several ski championships, started for the Alpine Club in Neuburg
  • 1973–2002 almost regular participation in the Coupe du Monde de Ski des Pharmaciens (24 times), winning numerous gold and silver medals for the Pharma Ski Team Germany (giant slalom: 17 gold, six silver; special slalom: 19th Gold times and silver five times in the respective age group).
  • In 2007 at the World Championships for Doctors and Pharmacists in Schladming / Tyrol, he won the gold medal in the special slalom (at the age of 77 in the senior class)

meaning

Heinz Schilcher continued Weiss's efforts “to develop a systematic method that can be taught and learned by doctors and scientists from empirical medicine with the ideas of traditional healing arts in predominantly ethnomedical systems”. (Bühring)

For decades, Schilcher's mainspring for a critical teaching was quality control. He has been calling for a specific standardization for phytopharmaceuticals since 1964, defined the coeffectors in phytopharmaceuticals (1965) and the concept of the lead substance (1977). From 1971 he called for the targeted cultivation of medicinal plants and analytical studies to exclude pesticides and heavy metals (1969 and 1971) in his publications.

As a critical observer of historical developments in medicinal plant theory, he has repeatedly pointed out the limits of therapeutic possibilities for these pharmaceuticals since 1981 and called for standards for the specialist discipline of phytotherapy to be set up in advanced medical training. Schilcher's work and life's work was to put effective, safe and calculable herbal remedies into the hands of doctors for their responsible work.

Prizes and awards

  • 1985 Sebastian Kneipp Prize
  • 1988 Rudolf Fritz Weiss Prize
  • 1990 the University Medal of Merit of the Semmelweis Medical University Budapest
  • 1991 Sertürner commemorative coin
  • 1993 Federal Cross of Merit 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
  • 1994 Aulus-Cornelius-Celsus-Medal of the Central Association of Doctors for Naturopathic Treatment
  • 1997 Environment Prize of the Bavarian State Government
  • 2002–2007 honorary member of the Society for Medicinal Plant Research (GA), the Society for Phytotherapy , the Institute for Medicinal Plant Research in Poznań and the Hungarian Society for Phytotherapy
  • 2003 Honorary doctorate from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Tirgu-Mures (Neumarkt / Transylvania)
  • 2003 Honorary President of the Central Association of Doctors for Naturopathic Treatment
  • 2006 20th Century Authority Award for Chamomile Research and Development
  • 2007 honorary doctorate from Semmelweis University Budapest
  • 2009 honorary award of the non-profit research association Saluplanta eV

Publications

As an author

a total of 304 scientific publications

Essays

  • In vitro antimicrobial activities of essential oils monographed in the "European Pharmacopoeia" 6th edition . In: Gerhard Buchbauer u. a .: Handbook of Essential Oils. Science, Technology and Application . CRC-Press, Boca Raton, La. 2010, ISBN 978-1-4200-6315-8 , pp. 353-548 (together with Alexander Pauli).

Books

  • Over-the-counter drugs. Skill test preparation and retail practice guide . 6th edition Scientific VG, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-8047-2207-1 .
  • Ginger. Health & Enjoyment . 5th edition. Walter Hädecke Verlag, Weil der Stadt 2010, ISBN 978-3-7750-0542-5 .
  • The chamomile. Handbook for doctors, pharmacists and other natural scientists . Wissenschaftliche VG, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 978-3-8047-0939-3 .
  • Small lexicon of medicinal herbs . 5th ed. Walter Hädecke Verlag, Weil der Stadt 2008, ISBN 978-3-7750-0492-3 .
  • Phytotherapy in paediatrics. Handbook for doctors and pharmacists . Scientific VG, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-8047-2244-6 .
  • Phytotherapy in urology . 2nd edition Hippokrates Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 978-3-7773-1048-0 .
  • Proof of competence for over-the-counter medicines in questions and answers . 4th edition Wissenschaftliche VG, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 978-3-8047-1903-3 .
  • Scented and medicinal plants: see, understand, use . 1st edition Stadelmann Verlag, Wiggensbach 2012, ISBN 978-3-9437-9303-1 .

As editor

  • Chamomile. Industrial Profiles . Taylor & Francis Verlag, New York 2005, ISBN 0-415-33463-2 (together with Rolf Franke).
  • Guide to phytotherapy . 4th edition Urban & Fischer Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-437-55343-1 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Schilcher, Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pharmacist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Burgheim
DATE OF DEATH 17th June 2015
Place of death Immenstadt in the Allgäu