A Tribute to Prof. Dr. Dr. E. Mutschler

The first „Biocenter Symposium on Drug Therapy” took place in February 2000 at the Biocenter of the University of Frankfurt (Germany). The coeditor (Dr. S. S. Chatterjee, Karlsruhe) and myself are pleased to dedicate the present proceedings of this symposium to my precedessor, Professor Ernst Mutschler, on occasion of his 70^th birthday.

Prof. Mutschler got his education in pharmacy and medicine at the Universities of Munich, Erlangen and Mainz. He received his PhD 1959 and his MD in 1966 in Mainz. After working as Associate Professor at the University of Mainz he became Full Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology, which serveral years later became part of the Biocenter of the University of Frankfurt. He retired in 1997.

Coming from a background in Pharmacy as well as Medicine, Prof. Mutschler always saw Pharmacology as an integrative discipline and as the experimental basis of therapeutics. I followed the same objective, when I initiated the Biocenter Symposium on Drug Therapy, which again will summarize experimental, clinical and pharmacological as well as therapeutical aspects of specific drugs or drug classes. I am pleased to present the present supplement „Advances in St. John’s Wort Research”.

Although diverse therapeutic uses of extracts obtainable from the medicinal herb St. John’s wort or Hypericum perforatum have been known since centuries, it was only around the last decade of the past century that reports on studies dealing with clinical efficacies, pharmacological properties, active constituent and modes of actions of such extracts have started appearing in standard medical journals. Two earlier supplements of this joumal (Pharmacopsychiatry 30, Suppl. 2, 71 - 134, 1997 and 31, Suppl. 1, 1 - 60, 1998) were therefore, timely dedicated for summarizing progresses made in St. John’s wort extract research till the beginning of 1998.

Both earlier supplements dealt either with the therapeutic uses of St. John’s wort extracts as antidepressant or with their antidepressant-like pharmacological properties and with potential active constituents only. Most reports in this supplement not only reconfirm and elaborate earlier findings but also add further experimental evidences for preclinical antidepressant and anxiolytic profiles of St. John’s Wort extracts, which go beyond the activity profiles of classical antidepressants.

Although the questions concerning active antidepressant constituents of Hypericum extracts can not yet be definitively answered, there seems to be an unanimous agreement to our initial proposal that hyperforin is quantitatively the major and structurally a novel type of antidepressant component of the herb with an unique mode of action.

A few contributions during the meeting dealt also with preliminary data suggesting therapeutic possibilities with Hypericum extracts and its constituents (mostly hyperforin) for conditions other than depression. Our personal contacts with several participants and contributors during the meeting make us believe that the time has now come when we do not have to repeatedly demonstrate that St. John’s wort is not only an active antidepressant, but also a therapeutically interesting source for novel types of antidepressants with unique activity profiles and mechanisms of actions. The more important problems that have to be solved now could as well be:

Can we create a novel drug with only one or two constituents of the herb? lf yes, which one and if not, which combination of the active constituents would be the best for therapeutic purposes? What are the molecular mechanisms of action of the diverse types of extracts and their constituents and how do they differ from till now known antidepressants? Which of the diverse pharmacological properties of the extracts and constituents are of therapeutic importance and which ones are experimental artefacts or curiosities only ?

Since all such questions are complex and interrelated problems and are common to many other herbal extracts currently widely used for therapeutic purposes, it could as well be that solving them with the help of St. John’s wort would generate guide lines to properly designing experiments for studies with other medicinal plants.

As pharmacologists and organizers of the meeting, we were particularly happy to note that the scientific methods, and approaches now being used for solving the St. John’s wort puzzle are completely following the rules and principles of modern experimental medicine. Dr. Chatterjee and myself therefore are very pleased to dedicate these proceedings of our meeting as thanks to Professor Mutschler, who early in our scientific carreers has always inspired us to keep up with growing and expanding knowledge of pharmacology and played an important role in bringing us together as collaborators for looking into the extremely complex problem of St. John’s Wort research.

Frankfurt/Main, April 2001

Professor and Chairman, Department of Pharmacology

Biocenter, University, Frankfurt