Beware of the truth, gentle Sister. Although much sought after, truth can be dangerous to the seeker. Myths and reassuring lies are much easier to find and believe. If you find a truth, even a temporary one, it can demand that you make painful changes.

-Frank Herbert, God Emperor of Dune

These words were quoted almost 20 years ago in the preface of The Honest Herbal by the one of the most respected men in the field of herbal medicine, as he admonished his readers to "remember as you read that your interest in herbs should be constructive, not destructive, to your health. This requires an ability not only to seek the truth but, after finding it, to discard any preconceived ideas which it may reveal as untrue."

The medicinal plant and pharmacognosy communities suffered an immense blow with the sudden death of Varro E. "Tip" Tyler on August 22. Prof. Tyler was a true giant in the field of pharmacognosy and herbal medicine education in the U.S. and abroad.

Tyler and his wife Ginny, his collaborator on many editorial projects, had just celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary in Austria and returned to their home in West Lafayette, Indiana, the day before his death from a pulmonary embolism.

His many accomplishments are well known in the field of herbal medicine. He was the senior author of six editions of Pharmacognosy, a major textbook used in every college of pharmacy for almost 30 years. He wrote three consumer and professional books, Hoosier Home Remedies (Purdue Univsersity Press), The Honest Herbal (Haworth Press), and Herbs of Choice: The Therapeutic Use of Phytomedicinals (Haworth Press). And, he was third author of the third and fourth editions of Rational Phytotherapy: A Physician's Guide to Herbal Medicine (Springer). He wrote more than 350 scientific and educational articles, delivered countless professional presentations and speeches, and appeared on numerous radio and television interviews. During the past few years, he also wrote a regular column on herbs in Prevention magazine.

Prof. Tyler had a distinguished academic career. He joined Purdue's faculty in 1966, serving as Dean of the School of Pharmacy and Pharmacal Sciences until his promotion in 1979 to Dean of the School of Pharmacy, Nursing and Health Sciences. In 1986 he became Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs of the Purdue system. In 1991 he returned to the School of Pharmacy as the Lilly Distinguished Professor in Pharmacognosy until retiring in 1996 as Dean and Distinguished Professor of Pharmacognosy Emeritus. He remained active in Purdue affairs and helped organize the new Center for Botanical Research funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health.

Prof. Tyler was active in many professional societies. In 1959 he was a founding member and first president of the American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP), later becoming an honorary life member. He also served as president of the American American Institute of History of Pharmacy and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. He was a director of the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education, the Lloyd Library in Cincinnati (North America's largest medicinal plant library), and honorary board member of the International Society for Medicinal Plant Research. He was a fellow of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Research and Science, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, many professional fraternities, and the editorial boards of many journals and magazines, including this one.

He received many awards and honors, including Distinguished Economic Botanist from the Society of Economic Botany (1995), and an honorary doctoral degree from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg Biocenter and School of Pharmacy in Halle/Salle, Germany in 2000 - one of his proudest honors. Even with these and many other awards, he remained essentially a modest and humble man.

Varro Eugene Tyler was born in Auburn, Nebraska in 1926. He attended the University of Nebraska, receiving a B.S. in 1949. He earned a master's and doctorate in pharmacognosy at the University of Connecticut under his mentor, A.E. Schwarting. His doctoral dissertation was on the chemistry and biological activity of the ergot fungus (Claviceps purpurea). He taught at the Universities of Nebraska and Washington (where he loved to go hunting for wild mushrooms in the forests on weekends) before joining the Purdue faculty in 1966.

After retirement, his life became busier, as he delivered speeches at professional conferences across the U.S. and around the world. Within 10 days of the date of his return from Austria and his death, he was to fly again to Germany to co-lead with this author a tour of the herbs and wines of the Rhine River valley for a group of Minnesota pharmacists.

Germany and Austria were two of Tyler's favorite places to visit both for professional reasons and for vacations. His wife Ginny speaks of a bench on the banks of the Moselle River where he would sit for hours to watch the river flow, while sipping some of the famous wines from this area (about which he had developed considerable expertise).

As busy as he was, he always seemed to find time to help his friends, edit an article, mentor a book, consult with companies manufacturing herbal products, and much more. Ever the consummate diplomat, the phrase ‘gentleman and a scholar' was no cliché when applied to Varro Tyler.

Unknown to many in the medicinal plant community, Prof. Tyler had a second high-profile career, as an internationally-respected expert in the esoteric field of Japanese philatelic forgeries - bogus Japanese postage stamps. He wrote two books on the subject and presented his findings at annual philatelic conferences.

He experienced several health challenges in the past decade (i.e., open-heart surgery, prostate cancer, and, most recently, multiple myeloma). Coincidently, the drug that until recently helped treat the myeloma was vincristine, a purified alkaloid derived from the Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don, Apocynaceae). Vincristine is manufactured by the Eli Lilly company of Indianapolis, the company that funded Tyler's chair at Purdue. Further, the drug was discovered in a classic scenario of serendipity by Tyler's friend and colleague, the late Gordon Svoboda, who, while researching the periwinkle for its traditionally reputed antidiabetic activity, discovered its potential for treating certain cancers. Tyler had intended to write the story of Svoboda and vincrstine, as he considered it one of the great untold stories in pharmacognosy and drug discovery from plants.

Despite his health difficulties, he was undaunted in pursuing his goal to establish rational herbalism as an appropriate healthcare modality in the U.S. Tyler was known for his strong positions on the need for a rational, appropriate mechanism to evaluate the quality, safety, and efficacy of herbal products sold in the U.S. An frequent critic of some of the products and claims made by some manufacturers and marketers of herbal products, he was equally critical of what he perceived as the lack of an effective regulatory policy and system for herbs at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Among his many roles, board positions, and consultancies, Prof. Tyler was a Trustee of the American Botanical Council and actively assisted ABC with the development of HerbalGram and HerbClip, as well as other ABC publications and related educational efforts - many of which have been patterned after his goals and objectives. He was the motivating force behind ABC's publication of the English translations of The Complete German Commission E Monographs: Therapeutic Guide to Herbal Medicines and Herbal Medicine: Expanded Commission E Monographs; he wrote forewords for both volumes.

His loss is felt deeply by all those who knew him. His long-time friend and colleague Norman R. Farnsworth, Ph.D., Distinguished University Professor, Research Professor of Pharmacognosy, and Senior University Scholar at the College of Pharmacy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and one of the founders of ASP with Tyler, said of Tyler:

"The day when he passed was not only a bad day for his family but also the people of the U.S., since he enlightened the public on the safety and benefit of herbal remedies in his monthly column in Prevention. All of our graduate students are in mourning, as they looked up to him for inspiration and as a positive role model for their careers, since he was a pharmacognosist who made it to the top. Considering where we are in the field of herbal supplements, we needed him to carry the torch for a longer period of time. He was probably the most eloquent and knowledgeable spokesperson who could communicate scientific information in a way that the public could understand."

Varro Tyler is survived by his wife, Ginny; and daughter, Jean, of West Lafayette, Indiana; son, David, of Eugene, Oregon; a granddaughter; and a sister, Jessie Lou Allen, of Brentwood, California.