Obituary
Prof. Dr. Ernst Reinhard (1926 - 2005)

On 27 September 2005, Professor Ernst Reinhard passed away in his domicile in Tübingen-Kressbach after a long period of ill health. [] [*]

Prof. Reinhard, honorary member of the Society for Medicinal Plant Research (Gesellschaft für Arzneipflanzenforschung) since 1992 and editor of PLANTA MEDICA from 1978 to 1993, was born 21 August 1926 in Würzburg, the capital of Lower Frankonia (Germany), where he went to elementary and grammar school from 1933 to1943. After military service and war captivity Ernst Reinhard studied natural sciences in his hometown. He was student and graduate assistant at the Institute of Botany and completed his first academic degree in 1953. He earned a doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) with his thesis ”Beobachtungen an in vitro kultivieren Geweben aus dem Vegationskegel der Pisum-Wurzel” (Studies with in-vitro cultivated tissues excised from the vegetation cone of pea root). Until 1958, Ernst Reinhard was scientific assistant to Hans Burgeff and at the same time he studied pharmaceutics in Würzburg. His first practical training as a pharmacist he received in a pharmacy in Kulmbach from 1958 to 1959. Thereafter, he joined Anton Lang’s group at the California Institute of Technology. Anton Lang was a plant physiologist who profoundly influenced the field and also Ernst Reinhard’s work. Back in Würzburg as a start Ernst Reinhard worked in a pharmacy but soon continued his academic career. In 1963, he habilitated and qualified as a professor with his work on changes of the contents of gibberellins in Hyoscyamus niger. (”Über die Veränderung des Gibberellingehaltes von Hyoscyamus niger”). In 1967 Ernst Reinhard moved to the University of Tübingen and started as an associate professor of Pharmacognosy. Later he became full professor and Head of the Chair of Pharmaceutical Biology. He was Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy from 1980 to 1982. He refused several offers to join other universities and stayed in Tübingen until his retirement in 1994.

Professor Ernst Reinhard has been one of the pioneers in plant biotechnology. His scientific projects included the optimisation of alkaloid formation by Catharanthus and Berberis cell suspension cultures in large bioreactors, forskolin production in submerged Coleus forskolii root cultures, as well as biosynthesis and biotransformation of cardiac glycosides in Digitalis cell and shoot cultures, to name just a few. His qualities as an academic instructor are reflected in about 50 PhD theses which emerged under his supervision. Professor Reinhard has also been an ambitious teacher and his lectures were highly accepted and attended by students, although taking place very early in the morning. Especially his ingenious remarks and reflections on the immune system and alternative medicines have been most exciting and comprehensive.

Professor Reinhard has devoted himself to promoting ”Pharmaceutical Biology” as a pharmaceutical discipline and in this way extended pharmacognosy to an emancipated and essential subject of the pharmacy curriculum. His famous textbook ”Pharmazeutische Biologie”, which was highly accepted already after its first release in 1977, is presently available in its 6th edition. Professor Reinhard has been editor of PLANTA MEDICA for 15 years and under his management PLANTA MEDICA has developed into one of the leading journals in the field and earned international reputation.

His professional prestige together with an obliging but dynamic personality has led him into a great number of functions. Ernst Reinhard has been president of the Society of Medicinal Plant Research (1974 - 1978), has served as a scientific counsellor to the Federal Chamber of Practising Pharmacists (Bundesapothekerkammer) and has been engaged in the work of the Commissions D (homeopathy) and E (phytotherapy) at the German Ministry of Health. Furthermore, Ernst Reinhard has been chairman of the committee on manufacturing rules of the German homeopathic pharmacopeia. Professor Reinhard was awarded the Flückiger medal (1983), the Lesmüller medal (1991), and the Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse (1993).

As a Professor Emeritus, Ernst Reinhard has still been active in research and in writing and editing his textbook. Moreover, he has been a counsellor to the University of Tübingen, his main concern being the design, construction and management of new research laboratories. Already at this time, however, he suffered from Parkinsons’s disease, and by and by his constitution impaired what made it impossible for him to travel. After the death of his beloved wife in 2003 he has lived a very secluded life, not by his own will but as a consequence of his illness.

With Professor Ernst Reinhard we lost an eloquent teacher, a faithful friend and a nestor to all those who have been and still are concerned about the development of medicinal plant research, plant biotechnology and pharmaceutical biology in general. We wish his two daughters and further relatives strength for the time to come and assure them that the scientific community will commemorate Professor Reinhard as a strong personality with a real passion for Pharmaceutical Biology in its broadest sense.

Wolfgang Kreis, Vice-President of GA
Rudolf Bauer, GA President

2005 The photograph was kindly provided by Prof. Dr. H.P.T. Ammon.