Editorial
1953 - 2003: 50^th Anniversary of Planta Medica

On April 8, 2003 the Society of Medicinal Plant Research (Gesellschaft für Arzneipflanzenforschung) celebrated its 50^th anniversary in Bad Camberg near Frankfurt, Germany. The founders of the Society were some German physicians who had experienced some disadvantages of modern medication and observed some healing effects of medicinal plants as well. Together with pharmacognosists, pharmaceutical chemists and industrial and approved pharmacists they set out to verify the effects of medicinal plants scientifically. The founding meeting on April 8, 1953 and the long journey of the Society to its position today is well described in the about 170 pages-long booklet ”Society for Medicinal Plant Research - 50 Years 1953 - 2003 - A Jubilee Edition” that was published this year by the Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft Stuttgart (ISBN 3 - 8047 2028 - 5). During the founding meeting the idea of a scientific journal covering research on medicinal plants was further developed and as little as two months later, in June 1953, the first issue of the new journal Planta Medica appeared (Fig. [1]). The first editorial by Dr. Ernst Meyer, one of the founders, presented the goals and aims of the new journal: This first issue of the scientific journal Planta Medica is intended to become the focus and nucleus of crystallization for the entire scientific literature related to medicinal plant research. It is the goal to familiarize therapeutic practitioners with the application of plant-derived medicinal drugs and to enable medical doctors to enlarge their knowledge of the treasures of medicinal drugs according to the newest state of scientific research. Outstanding scientists chosen as editors from the membership of our Society guarantee a sound development of the journal in the fullest intention of the set goals.

Thus, the applied aspects of therapeutic usage of medicinal plants were primarily in the scope of the journal, as also indicated by its subtitle: ”Journal of medicinal plant application and research”. The editorial board contained names that were famous worldwide in the pharmaceutical and biological sciences such as Prof. Mothes (Gatersleben/Halle) and Prof. Hegnauer (Leiden); Prof. Schratz (Münster) was nominated as one of the first editors (Fig. [2]). He edited the journal for 25 years from 1953 to 1977. At that time, the journal was almost handmade with paper, pencils, scissors and gum. Wording, structural formulas and whole paragraphs had to be improved, changed or corrected. An entire room at the Institute in Münster was covered with paper stuff, manuscripts, proofs and almost finished issues. Under the guidance of Prof. Schratz, the subtitle of Planta Medica was soon changed to ”Journal of medicinal plant research” thus leaving behind the applied aspect of therapy from the very beginning. In 1977 the editor’s office was transferred to Tübingen where Prof. Reinhard (Fig. [3]) served as Editor in Chief for the following 15 years until 1992. While Prof. Schratz already developed Planta Medica from a German into a European journal with the first steps to internationality, this development was clearly promoted by Prof. Reinhard. Under his guidance, Planta Medica became a well established journal worldwide that published scientific contributions preferentially in English, but also in German and in French.

The current editorial board of the journal, the Society for Medicinal Plant Research and Georg Thieme Publishers are highly obliged to both Editors for their major efforts and continuous work to establish Planta Medica as an internationally well accepted scientific journal.

In 1993, the editor’s office moved back to Münster; this last period until today was mainly characterized by (i) the introduction of the computer into the preparation and administration of manuscripts, (ii) the change to exclusively English written manuscripts, (iii) the change of the subtitle to ”Natural products and medicinal plant research” (thereby giving more impact on pure natural compounds), and (iv) a steady increase not only in the number of manuscripts but also in the impact of the journal as shown below.

Until 1983, Hippokrates Verlag (Stuttgart) published Planta Medica, starting with the small format of 6.5 × 9 inches, but in 1982 they changed to the larger German Journal format (20 × 27 cm). The latter format permitted a better and space-saving presentation of the manuscripts and also by the way helped to save space in libraries. Step by step the cover of the journal became more attractive in that it changed first to green letters, then to fully green and green-white, the characteristic colors of productions by Hippokrates Publishers. Since 1984, the journal has been produced by Georg Thieme Publishers (Stuttgart), initially with the typical blue-white colors of Thieme, and after some modifications finally evolved into the elegant blue/silver cover of today. So I think the appearance of Planta Medica has made a positive progress over the years. While the names of the scientists who took responsibility about the content of the journal were on the cover-page for many years until 1991, they disappeared in two steps from the cover; today the journal presents its main topics on the front page together with the artistic drawing of an actual medicinal plant. The logo of the Society, a poppy capsule created by Prof. Steinegger at the occasion of the 21^st meeting of the Society in Bern 1973, has decorated the cover of Planta Medica since 1978. For a short period of time the Publisher decided to give the logo a modern shape, but after discussions with the Society and the Editor, this was soon changed back to the old appearance (Fig. [4]). One may be surprised that the 2003 volume number of Planta Medica is 69 rather than 51; the reason for this is that during the 1970 s and 1980 two volumes and from 1981 to 1983 even three volumes were produced per year. There was also a short period of 4 years (1985 - 1988) when the Publisher decided not to have volume numbers; this often leads to some confusion when citing papers from this period (the respective volume numbers are 51 - 54).

A scientific journal depends on its authors. With three snapshots I want to show you, where over the world, the published manuscripts have come from. In 1953, the contributions were exclusively from Germany. This changed already in the late 1950 s when more and more manuscripts were submitted from German-speaking European countries. When we inspect the situation in 1978, 25 years after foundation, many European researchers and even some from American and Asian countries published in Planta Medica, altogether from 26 countries. Another 24 years later, in 2002, the number of countries had again increased by 11; the growth was especially in the American and Asian parts of the world (see also Fig. [7]). This development has been accompanied by a continuously increasing number of submissions, in particular within the last decade, and finally influenced the number of issues per year as shown in Fig. [5]. In the very beginning, the number of issues was not fixed; Planta Medica started with 2, through 4 to 6 per year and stayed there for many years. From 1979 on, there was a period of 12 issues per year but without increasing the number of published manuscripts (which therefore became longer). When Thieme Publishers started production of the journal, the number of issues was decreased again to 6 per year. However, from 1994 the number of submissions steadily increased from about 400 to 800, accordingly forcing Board and Publisher also to increase the number of issues first to 8, then to 9 and finally to 12 per year. This, however, was and still is a great challenge for all who are involved in the production of the journal.

What topics were and are published by Planta Medica, and how has this changed over the past 50 years? In Fig. [6] are again some snapshots. In 1960 the main topics were pharmacology, bio-chemistry, natural products chemistry and analytical methods, all of which are fundamentals of medicinal plant science. Over the years, less pronounced topics such as morphology/anatomy, pure taxonomy and cultivation almost totally disappeared from the journal as is obvious from the period of 1980 to 1990. The first four topics still are the main areas of contributions today, but (very slowly) also clinical studies with phytochemically well defined herbal medicinal products now appear in the journal. It seems that one of the original topics of the founders, the applied therapeutic aspects, after a 50-year period is now slowly re-entering the journal in the form of well documented clinical observations. It is also obvious from Fig. [6] that pharmacological/toxicological aspects have dramatically increased over the past 30 years; this influenced the number of papers on natural product chemistry negatively; however, many contributions on pharmacology contain phytochemical aspects and vice versa. There was also a period in the 1970 s and 1980 s during which plant physiology/biochemistry was comparatively strong; in those years, research on cell cultures of medicinal plants was in the focus of many pharmacognosists. So, in general, Fig. [6] shows to some extent the development and the changing impact of scientific topics in pharmacognosy.

Fig. [7], to some degree, reflects the development of pharmacognosy in the world: it shows the origin of published manuscripts in terms of continents. The most obvious change over the years is that the contributions from Europe steadily decreased, whereas the contributions from East Asia steadily increased. Nowadays Planta Medica publishes more papers from Asian countries than from Europe. During the last period we observe, albeit very slowly and at a low level, an increase of contributions from North and especially South America. To a certain extent these changes reflect the scientific activities on - and the interest in - medicinal plants in the world over the past 40 years. In Europe, and especially in Germany, activities have decreased under different influences originating from politics in science as well as from political determinations in public health. In contrast, other countries in the world have strongly developed their research in medicinal plants, phytomedicines, and phytotherapy with good success. It may be that one day Europe and especially Germany will import rationale herbal medicinal products from China, Japan, Brazil, Argentina or even the United States, because losing experts in pharmacognosy stands for losing knowledge and expertise in this important field of medicinal research.

Back to Planta Medica: all the many manuscripts can only be ranked and evaluated with the help of a great number of colleagues. It is impossible to address all the hundreds of referees who have helped on a voluntary basis to improve the quality of the manuscripts. Since 1985 the first pages of each volume of the journal contains the names of referees who helped the journal during the previous year. The front page of each issue contains the names of mostly well known scientists who served as coeditors or on the advisory board over the years. Our thanks to all of them for their great contributions to the journal during its 50 year journey to its present position.

What is the present position? Although one can raise a series of objections, there is a certain measure for the success of a scientific journal, the so-called impact factor (IF). The IF is a measure of citation of a journal, that is its significance in and the interest of the scientific community. For instance, a factor of 1 for a certain year means that, on average, each paper of the journal was cited once in the two years before. The change of the IF of Planta Medica from the mid 1970 s is shown in Fig. [8]. We observe a period until the early 1980 s where the IF slowly climbed to reach 1; then a period where it stayed around 1; and a last period during which it increased to about 2. This is pretty good for a journal covering medicinal plant research. Nevertheless, all who are involved in producing Planta Medica should not lean back, but rather try harder, because there is a lot of stimulating competition.

Altogether, after 50 years Planta Medica is in a healthy and good position. As the current editor, I take the opportunity to pass my sincerest thanks to all authors who have and will submit their valuable manuscripts, to all colleagues who are involved in the responsible and careful selection of suitable papers, to Thieme Publishers who produce this journal in an esthetically convincing appearance and last not least to the readers who care for the economic basis of Planta Medica.

Fig. 1 Cover page of Planta Medica issue 1/2 of volume 1 (1953).

Fig. 2 Prof. Dr. Eduard Schratz Editor in Chief from 1953 to 1977.

Fig. 3 Prof. Dr. Ernst Reinhard Editor in Chief from 1977 to 1992.

Fig. 4 The GA logo on the front page of Planta Medica from 1978 to today.

Fig. 5 Number of submitted (subm.) and published (acc.) manuscripts from 1978 to 2002. Arrows and their numbers point to issues per year.

Fig. 6 General topics of Planta Medica from 1960 to 2002.

Fig. 7 Geographical origin in percent of Planta Medica manuscripts.

Fig. 8 Development of the impact factor of Planta Medica from 1975 to 2002.