Editorial for the Special Issue Dedicated to Prof. Gerhard Franz

It is our great pleasure to present this special issue dedicated to Prof. Gerhard Franz on the occasion of his birthday, in recognition of his renowned scientific contributions in pharmaceutical biology and his outstanding work for pharmacopoeias to improve and harmonise the quality of herbal medicinal products.

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Gerhard Franz, born on March 26th, 1937 in Dresden, Germany, studied pharmacy at the Technical University of Karlsruhe (1959 – 1962) and earned his PhD in plant biochemistry at the University of Fribourg (1965). During his time as a post-doc at the Department of Biochemistry, University of California, Berkeley, and then as Chef de Travaux at the Department of Biology, University of Fribourg (1967 – 1970), he made important discoveries on the biosynthesis of cellulose and other oligo- and polysaccharides of plant cell walls, resulting in his habilitation in 1970. From 1970 until 1976, he had a position as Assistant Professor at the University of Fribourg, interrupted by a stay as Invited Professor at the University of Basel (1973 – 1975). His research focussed on plant polysaccharides, ranging from biosynthesis and metabolism over chemotaxonomy up to physiological and application aspects.

An important milestone in his life was the appointment to the Chair of Pharmaceutical Biology at the newly established Department of Pharmacy of the University of Regensburg in 1977, where he became strongly involved in academic self-administration and is still active as Professor Emeritus since 2005.

Although Gerhard Franz is known for his expertise in carbohydrates, he expanded his research areas in Regensburg. The topics included identification of numerous secondary plant metabolites and investigations on their biosynthesis, as well as immunomodulating, anti-tumour and anti-angiogenetic activities of natural and modified polysaccharides and other natural compounds. He also worked toward furthering the chemical and pharmacological characterisation of components of medicinal plants, investigated the quality and stability of herbal drugs and herbal preparations, and, finally, performed analytical investigations of traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) herbal drugs. This scientific work is documented in more than 270 publications and about 60 PhD theses under his supervision.

Readers may know Gerhard Franz due to his numerous editorial activities (including co-editor of Planta Medica), his engagement for the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research (GA) since 1970 (e.g., president 1994 – 1998), or his many scientific honours and awards. Important to mention is also another part of his career, namely, his outstanding commitment in the field of regulatory aspects of herbal drugs and herbal medicinal products (HMPs) since 1988. Until the end of last year, he chaired the Expert Group “Pharmaceutical Biology” and was a member of the German Pharmacopoeia (DAB) as well as other commissions at the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM). From 1996 until 2005, he was the Chair of the Group of Experts 13B and subsequently of the TCM Working Party of the European Pharmacopoeia (PhEur) Commission at the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare (EDQM) until 2016. He acted as an observer at the EMA, is a member of the Hong Kong Chinese Materia Medica Standards HKCMMS, and is still active for the “Deutscher Arzneimittel Codex” (DAC).

Under the guidance of Gerhard Franz, a tremendous number of quality monographs on herbal drugs and herbal drug preparations have been implemented in the DAB and in the PhEur. Based on his DAB experience, he acted as a “driving force” at the EDQM so that the PhEur now contains more than 350 herbal monographs. Such monographs are very important for all parties involved in the production and quality control of HMPs. Moreover, since appropriate quality is essential for the safety and efficacy of HMPs, all this work finally contributed to the improvement of phytotherapy and thus to public health.

Remarkable is his engagement to ensure the quality of TCM herbal drugs used in Europe. He initiated the elaboration of quality monographs on TCM herbal drugs for the PhEur and chaired the TCM working party, established in 2005, for 12 years. The challenging work resulted in 60 TCM monographs implemented in the PhEur 9.0 (86 in PhEur 11.2). In parallel, he guided similar activities for the DAB, the results of which were taken over in part by the PhEur. The scientific efforts and achievements of the TCM working party had attracted international attention. Gerhard Franz was invited to give plenary lectures at many conferences in China and other countries all over the world to report about problems and solutions regarding TCM herbal drugs. He was Visiting Professor at the University of Harbin (China), consulted several institutions in China, and was able to catalyse a fruitful collaboration between the Chinese State Administration of TCM (SATCM) and the EDQM. These activities were recognised by the Honorary Membership of the GP TCM RA, the Annual Award of the World Federation of Chinese Medicine, and the Qihuang International Prize of the China Association of Chinese Medicine.

Overall, the scientific oeuvre of Gerhard Franz is characterised by distinct facets, ranging from basic research in plant science and carbohydrates over classical and application-oriented research in pharmacognosy up to analytical works for Pharmacopoeias. In line with this, the papers of this issue represent a broad spectrum of subjects and also include a review on Cannabis, which was one of the last issues of the DAB work program under his guidance. But one subject is missing, namely, art and painting, which additionally plays an important role in the life of the studied artist and painter of wonderful pictures.

Susanne Alban and Robert Fürst

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Publication History

Article published online:
05 July 2023

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