Abstract
Turhan Baytop, a Turkish professor of pharmacognosy (the scientific study of crude drugs of animal, vegetable, and mineral origin), received international acclaim not only for his contributions in collecting and identifying the Anatolian plants, but also for his extensive research shedding light on the history of Turkish pharmacy. As a devoted researcher, collector, and lecturer, T Baytop was a genuine pioneer of the history of pharmacy as a discipline in Turkey.
Introduction
Turkey has inherited a vast medico-pharmaceutical culture and an exceptional blend of Eastern and Western medical traditions, due to its unique location astride Asia and Europe. However, the study of pharmaceutical history in Turkey began rather late. Apart from some short translations published in Ottoman journals in the late 19th century, the first comprehensive studies focusing on the history of Turkish pharmacy appeared in the 1940s as individual efforts by researchers such as Ahmed Suheyl Unver (1898−1986), Nasid Baylav (1903−1982), Remzi Kocaer (1904−1977), and Bedi Nuri Sehsuvaroglu (1914−1977). 1 Among these researchers, Turhan Baytop (1920−2002), a professor of pharmacognosy (the scientific study of crude drugs of animal, vegetable, and mineral origin), deserves a special mention because of his efforts in developing the history of pharmacy as an established discipline in Turkey. This paper aims to present a biographical sketch of T Baytop’s life and to highlight his contributions to the history of pharmacy.
Turhan Baytop’s biography
Omer Turhan Baytop was born on 20 May 1920 in Uskudar (Scutari), Istanbul, as the first child of Meliha and Mehmet Emin Baytop. Because his father was a colonel in the Turkish army, T Baytop frequently moved to different parts of the country with his family. The years he spent in Anatolia triggered his interest in nature, especially in medicinal plants. Following his graduation from the Istanbul University School of Pharmacy in 1945, he frequented the Department of Pharmacobotany and Genetics of the same school as a voluntary assistant. 2 In August 1948, he was appointed as a full-time assistant at the Pharmacognosy Institute, where he would earn his PhD in June 1949 with a thesis entitled Ephedra campylopoda C.A. Mey’in morfolojik, anatomik ve kimyasal karakterleri (Morphological, anatomical, and chemical properties of Ephedra campylopoda CA Mey) under the supervision of Prof Alfred Heilbronn (1885−1961). 3
In 1951 and 1952, T Baytop worked as a visiting researcher at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Paris. Following his return to Turkey, he resumed his work at the Istanbul University and was promoted to associate professor in pharmacognosy in 1953 with his research on liquorice root and its extract.
2
The same year he married Dr Pharm Asuman Baytop (née Berk) (1920−2015).
4
T Baytop was promoted to full professor in 1963.
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After acting as the founding dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy in 1963, he was re-elected four times until his retirement in 1987. He served as a professor of pharmacognosy for 25 years and continued to lecture as emeritus until 1996.
6
He kept publishing on the history of Turkish pharmacy until virtually the last days of his life (Figure 1).
3
Only a few weeks after the sixth National Meeting on the History of Turkish Pharmacy (5–7 June 2002) had been organised at the Istanbul University Faculty of Pharmacy, he passed away on 25 June 2002 in Istanbul.
7
Turhan Baytop in 1998 (Photo: F Gunergun).
T Baytop, in collaboration with his wife, the late Prof A Baytop, collected around 11,000 plant specimens in 175 scientific excursions around Turkey; thus, he contributed to the foundation of the Herbarium of the Istanbul University Faculty of Pharmacy (ISTE).8,9 He also donated duplicates of many specimens to the herbaria of Istanbul University Faculty of Science (ISTF), Ege University (EGE), Hacettepe University (HUB), as well as the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh (E) and at Kew (K), the Botanical Garden of Geneva (G), and the private herbarium of Dr Arthur Huber-Morath (Hb Hub-Mor) in Basel. 10 Thanks to these excursions, T Baytop discovered 29 plant species new to science, which were named after him (e.g., Astragalus baytopianus, Colchicum baytopiorum, Crocus baytopiorum, Galium baytopianum, Nepeta baytopii). 3 The chemical and pharmacological properties of these plants have been largely studied in literature. (Since most of these plants are endemic species with limited distribution and are also included in different degrees of risk categories in the red data book of Turkish plants, they are not used for medical purposes.)
Awards, medals, and honours received by Turhan Baytop
Turhan Baytop’s contributions to the history of Turkish pharmacy
From the beginning of his career, T Baytop was very enthusiastic about the history of Turkish pharmacy. In the foreword of his book Turk Eczacilik Tarihi (History of Turkish Pharmacy, 1985), T Baytop states that he became interested in the history of pharmacy in 1946 and began collecting historical materials since then. 13 Indeed, his booklet Ortacag Eczacilik Tarihine Kisa Bir Bakis ve Ilk Bitkisel Droglar (A Brief Overview of the History of Pharmacy in the Middle Ages and the First Medicinal Plants, 1947), written jointly with Prof Sarim Husnu Celebioglu (1897–1982), and his biographical article (1948) on Mehmed Ali Pasha (1837−1914), an Ottoman botanist, witness T Baytop’s early interest in the subject. 11
T Baytop’s longstanding contributions to the history of Turkish pharmacy include not only his research activities and publications in this field, but also his successful efforts to support and promote the history of pharmacy in different ways.
His research and publications
T Baytop authored a total of 11 books and 118 publications (6 booklets, 3 book chapters, 32 articles, 44 encyclopaedia entries, and 33 congress proceedings/abstracts) solely on the history of pharmacy. These publications can be classified under the following categories: (I) biographies of pharmacists, teaching staff of the School of Pharmacy, historians of pharmacy, plant collectors who came to Turkey between the 16th and 20th centuries, (II) history of pharmacies, pharmacy practice, regulations and law, (III) history of the School of Pharmacy and pharmaceutical education, (IV) history of laboratories and the drug industry, and (V) museums and collections of the history of pharmacy. His publication list clearly indicates that T Baytop was especially keen in writing biographies most of which were accompanied with some rare photos or autographs that T Baytop was able to obtain thanks to his personal network in the pharmacy community, from an auction or by the descendants of his subject.
It is interesting to note that T Baytop’s studies on the history of pharmacy increased rapidly after his retirement.
14
Based on a wide variety of primary sources (e.g. historical photographs, ephemerae, meeting minutes, letters, memoirs, and oral accounts), which he collected for nearly 40 years, T Baytop published one of his most-cited historical works, Turk Eczacilik Tarihi (History of Turkish Pharmacy) in 1985 (an abridged second edition with Afife Mat in 2002) (Figure 2). This was followed by many other books that dealt particularly with the last two centuries of Turkish pharmacy, when Turkey took its most significant steps toward modernizing pharmacy education, pharmacy practice, and pharmaceutical legislation (Table 2).
Cover of Turhan Baytop’s book entitled Turk Eczacilik Tarihi (History of Turkish Pharmacy, 1985) (Tekiner H Archive). Some of Turhan Baytop’s books on the history of pharmacy
His efforts to support and promote the history of pharmacy
T Baytop’s contributions to the history of pharmacy are not limited to his publications. He founded the first museum of the history of Turkish pharmacy in 1960 at the Istanbul University School of Pharmacy (Figure 3). His private collection of mortars, drug jars, pharmaceutical books/journals, photos, diplomas, and ephemerae initially constituted the core of this museum, but it was greatly enriched over the years through both donations and purchases, thanks to T Baytop’s efforts as the dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy.
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Exhibiting nearly 3000 objects today, the museum reflects a wide spectrum of Turkish pharmaceutical history, ranging from the times of the Anatolian Seljuks through the 1960s. It also chronicles the progress of pharmacy education and the drug industry in Turkey. Moreover, T Baytop launched National Meetings on the History of Turkish Pharmacy in 1990 (Figure 4). This created widespread interest in the subject throughout the country, and these meetings are still successfully organised biannually.
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He further made a concerted effort to collaborate with historians of pharmacy from abroad. Besides his participation in international events and gatherings on the history of pharmacy, he was elected as the first Turkish member of the Société d’Histoire de la Pharmacie (1968) and a corresponding member of the Académie Nationale de Pharmacie (1977).
7
One of the most significant steps he took at the international level was organising the first French-Turkish joint meeting on the History of Pharmacy in Istanbul in May 1990. A total of 14 communications were presented at this meeting, which was also attended by some 70 French historians of pharmacy.
16
The first history of pharmacy museum in Turkey was established by Turhan Baytop at the Istanbul University Faculty of Pharmacy in 1960 (Tekiner H Archive). Turhan Baytop with the participants of the third National Meeting on the History of Turkish Pharmacy in 1996 in Eskisehir, Turkey (Gunergun F Archive).
Shortly before the first National Meeting on the History of Turkish Pharmacy in 1990, T Baytop proposed the creation of a medal named after Avicenna to be given to a foreign researcher who has significantly contributed in promoting the history of pharmacy at international level. This medal was given to Henri Bonnemain (1990) and Michèle Nicolas (1996) from France, and Finn Sandberg (2000) from Sweden. 7 In 2002, in order to encourage Turkish researchers to become actively involved in the history of pharmacy, T Baytop proposed a new award named after Hamdi Bey (1855−1909), one of the first Turkish community pharmacists of the Ottoman Empire, who had opened his pharmacy in 1880 in Istanbul. “The Pharmacist Hamdi Bey Award” was given to Gulnur and Mert Sandalci (2002), Halil Tekiner (2010), Emre Dolen (2012), and Afife Mat (2014). 16
Conclusion
Turhan Baytop was a truly outstanding figure in the history of Turkish pharmacy because of his ongoing efforts to promote Turkish pharmaceutical history at both national and international levels, as well as providing a voluminous number of original studies in this field—and, more importantly, taking prudent steps towards a stronger base for future studies of Turkish pharmaceutical history. During his service as dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy, he paid particular attention to renovating and enriching the museum of the history of Turkish pharmacy, and he rearranged the hours of pharmaceutical history courses in the curriculum. In conclusion, as a devoted researcher, collector, and lecturer, T Baytop deserves to be remembered as a genuine pioneer of the history of pharmacy as a discipline in Turkey.
Footnotes
Acknowledgement
The author thanks Prof Feza Gunergun, daughter of the late Prof Turhan Baytop, for critically proofreading the manuscript.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.