Biography

Turhan Baytop, pharmacist and professor of pharmacognosy and history of pharmacy at Istanbul University, was a keen naturalist and expert on bulbous plants. He collected more than 10,000 botanical specimens in Turkey and published Bulbous Plants of Turkey (1984) with B. Mathew.

Baytop graduated from the School of Pharmacy in Istanbul in 1945, after which he joined the Department of Pharmacognosy. Baytop spent his whole career at Istanbul, apart from a year of research in Paris in 1951-1952. He was made professor in 1963 and retired in 1987.

Baytop's research focused on the medicinal plants of Turkey, entailing travel all around the country investigating uses of Turkish plants. He made roughly 170 collecting expeditions between 1949 and 2000. His botanical collections formed the basis of a herbarium in the department, which went on to provide the foundation of the ISTE herbarium at Istanbul University. Baytop gives an account of his travels in Anadolu Daglarinda 50 Yil (Fifty Years in the Anatolian Mountains, 2001).

Baytop had a particular passion for bulbous plants (especially Crocus), which he grew in his garden in Istanbul, and his collections are rich in Amaryllidaceae, Araceae, Cyclamenaceae, Iridaceae, Liliaceae and Orchidaceae. His work The Bulbous Plants of Turkey was authored in collaboration with Brian Mathew of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, whose herbarium also holds many Baytop specimens. His collections also contributed to the Flora of Turkey.

Baytop's knowledge of useful plants in Turkey extended from both food and medicinal plants to poisonous species. He published many papers and books on this topic, including Türkiye'de Bitkiler ile Tedavi (Therapy with Medicinal Plants in Turkey, 1984, 1999). He also authored an extensive dictionary of plant names in Turkey (1994, 1997) and works on the history of pharmacy in Turkey.

Turhan Baytop was awarded the OPTIMA Silver Medal in 1986 (OPTIMA promotes studies into the flora of the Mediterranean area), the Tübitak Golden Plate in 1988 (Tübitak is a Turkish institution supporting scientific research) and the Gold Medal of the Economic Cooperation Organization, Tehran, in 1992. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Eskişehir, in 1998. The eighth volume of P.H. Davis' Flora of Turkey was dedicated to Baytop and his wife, Asuman.

Several species are named in honour of Baytop, including Crocus baytopiorum B.Mathew and Nepeta baytopii Hedge & Lamond.

Sources:
A. Baytop, 2010, "Plant collectors in Anatolia (Turkey)", Phytologia Balcanica, 16(2): 207-208
2002, "Professor Turhan Baytop", The Daily Telegraph, 5 July 2002:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1399308/Professor-Turhan-Baytop.html.