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ABC Announces Recipients of James A. Duke Excellence in Botanical Literature Award
(AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 21, 2013) The nonprofit American Botanical
Council (ABC) is pleased to announce this year’s James A. Duke Excellence in
Botanical Literature Award recipients. The reference and technical book
recipient is Medicinal Plants and the Legacy of Richard E. Schultes
co-edited by Rainer W. Bussmann, PhD, and Bruce E. Ponman; the recipient in the
popular and consumer books category is Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana –
Medical, Recreational, and Scientific by Martin A. Lee.
The ABC James A. Duke Excellence in Botanical Literature Award was created in
2006 in honor of noted economic botanist and author, James A. Duke, PhD. It is
given annually to books that provide a significant contribution to literature
in the fields of botany, taxonomy, ethnobotany, phytomedicine, or other
disciplines related to the vast field of medicinal plants. Among his long and
prestigious career achievements in economic botany and ethnobotany at the
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Dr. Duke has authored more than
30 reference and consumer books. He is also a co-founding
member of ABC’s Board of Trustees and currently serves as Director Emeritus.
In 2011, due to the diversity of quality books related to medicinal plants, ABC
created two distinct categories for the James A. Duke Award. The recipient of
the popular and consumer books category award was Healing Spices: How to
Use 50 Everyday and Exotic Spices to Boost Health and Beat Disease
by Bharat B. Aggarwal, PhD, and Debora Yost (Sterling Publishing, 2011). The
same year, the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia’s Botanical Pharmacognosy:
Microscopic Characterization of Botanical Medicines (CRC Press) received the
reference and technical books category award.
Medicinal
Plants and the Legacy of Richard E. Schultes
This book, a collection of essays published by the Missouri Botanical Garden,
is based on the proceedings of the 2011 symposium held in honor of the great
ethnobotanist and Harvard University Professor Richard E. Schultes, PhD
(1915-2001), on the 10th anniversary of his death.
“If anybody could be named as the father of ethnobotany, it would be Richard E.
Schultes,” said co-editor Dr. Bussmann. “No researcher has ever done more field
research, more to promote the discipline, and has encouraged more students to
become ethnobotanists, with almost every senior scientist in the field
acknowledging some connection to Schultes.”
The book chronicles the influence of Dr. Schultes on former students and
colleagues and sheds light on his illustrious career and the lasting effects of
the pioneering ethnobotanist. “I am increasingly of the belief that Richard
Evans Schultes' impact has yet to be fully realized in terms of his historical
importance,” said ABC Board of Trustees President Steven Foster. “Roughly half
of the chapter authors of the book were his students. Schultes' careful,
conservative, high-quality scholarship quietly affected the social and
political history of the last half of the twentieth century.”
According to Dr. Bussmann, Dr. Schultes published roughly two dozen books and
500 papers, collected over 30,000 plant samples, and conducted continuous
fieldwork in the Amazon for more than 14 years. “[He] created what can only be
called the golden age of Economic Botany,” he said.
“The symposium volume, like Schultes himself, is an ethnobotanical
treasure,” said Dr. Duke. “My thanks and congratulations to the editors and
contributors for a notable symposium we can treasure forever.”
“There is no doubt among those in the fascinating field of ethnobotany that
Professor Schultes was the greatest ethnobotanist of our time, or possibly of
any era,” said ABC Founder and Executive Director Mark Blumenthal.
“His students were profoundly inspired by his teachings, and many have embraced
ethnobotany as their primary passion and inspiration for their careers.”
Many of Schultes’ former students are part of ABC, either as a member of the
ABC Advisory Board or a friend of the herbal community. These include, but are
not limited to, the following scholars, authors, educators, and conservation
botanists, among numerous others: Michael J. Balick, PhD, of the New York
Botanical Garden; Wade Davis, PhD, explorer-in-residence at the National
Geographic Society and best-selling author; Djaja D. Soejarto, PhD, at the
College of Pharmacy at the University of Illinois at Chicago; Steven King, PhD,
of Napo Pharmaceuticals; Mark Plotkin, PhD, director of the Amazon Conservation
Team; Paul Alan Cox, director of Seacology; Robert Bye, PhD, director emeritus
of the Botanical Garden of the Institute of Biology of the National Autonomous
University of Mexico; and the iconic integrative medicine pioneer and
best-selling author Andrew Weil, MD.
Dr. Bussmann and Mr. Ponman were grateful to be chosen for the Excellence
in Botanical Literature award, praising its namesake. “James Duke is one of the
most respected colleagues in our field, and has for decades been the leader of
the systematization and publication of ethnobotanical information and the phytochemical
data associated with it,” said Dr. Bussmann. “He is also one of the most
prolific and widely read authors in the field. To receive the James Duke Award
is an exceptional honor to both, us as editors, and the Missouri Botanical
Garden.”
Medicinal
Plants and the Legacy of Richard E. Schultes can be purchased for
$24.95 through the
ABC e-store or other online retailers.
Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana – Medical, Recreational,
and Scientific
Martin A. Lee, who spent three-and-a-half years researching and writing the
book, is an award-winning investigative journalist and co-author of Acid
Dreams: A Complete Social History of LSD – The CIA, The 60s, and Beyond (Grove
Press, 1985). The publication of Smoke Signals by Scribner, a division
of Simon & Schuster, Inc., coincided with a robust public discussion of
medicinal cannabis during the 2012 election season. Currently, 18 states and
the District of Columbia have legalized medicinal cannabis, and, last November,
Colorado and Washington became the first states to decriminalize the possession
of up to an ounce of cannabis for personal use by adults.
“When I began writing about cannabis, I had no idea about the impressive
scientific data, mainly based on pre-clinical research, that powerfully
validates the experience of many medical marijuana users,” said Lee.
“Public attitudes reflect conflicting claims about marijuana's potential
benefits and risks. There has been a deliberate effort to create
uncertainty about what the science says about cannabis. I would compare it
to corporate-driven efforts to create scientific uncertainty with respect to
climate change. The public discussion about marijuana continues to be haunted
by the ghosts of Reefer Madness,” he said, referring to
the 1936 American propaganda film that heavily distorted the physical,
psychological, and social effects of smoking cannabis.
Foster explained the importance of public education and debate in a time when
cannabis is still viewed by many as taboo. “We don't get to the next stage of
understanding the phytochemistry, pharmacology, and medical potential, unless
we go through a period of social revolt against the way things are and have
been for far too long,” he said. “And we don't get there as a society unless we
do understand the social history. That is the only way that we as a
society are going to move the science forward in a rational way.”
“My exciting, sometimes dangerous, and always interesting career has seen me in
the coca fields of Latin America, poppy fields in Laos, and ganja
fields in Jamaica,” said Dr. Duke, who worked for several years on a USDA
collaboration with the Drug Enforcement Agency’s anti-narcotic program. “Their
programs targeted cannabis, the coca bush, and the opium poppy, each with long
histories of major medicinal activities. [Smoke Signals] is historically
important, but my greater interest is in the medicinal bullets that Lee presents.”
The meticulously researched book aims to help educate readers to understand the
long, often-contentious history of cannabis, including its use as medicine.
According to the publisher’s website, Smoke Signals “draws attention to
underreported scientific breakthroughs that are reshaping the therapeutic
landscape.” Medicinal cannabis has been studied as a potential treatment for a
wide variety of health conditions including chronic pain, cancer and
chemotherapy side effects, and heart disease, among many others.
“I'm very pleased that the American Botanical Council recognizes the importance
of clear, incisive reporting about cannabis,” said Mr. Lee. “The
plant deserves it.”
Smoke
Signals: A Social History of Marijuana – Medical, Recreational, and Scientific retails
for $35.00 and is available for purchase from the publisher’s website.
An excerpt from Smoke Signals was published in the December 2012 issue of
HerbalEGram, ABC’s monthly e-newsletter, which is available online
to ABC members.
The awardees will receive the ABC James A. Duke Excellence in Botanical
Literature Award at the 8th Annual ABC Botanical Celebration and
Awards Ceremony on March 7, 2013 in Anaheim, California. The ABC event occurs
during the annual Nutracon nutrition, natural products, and dietary supplements
conference and Natural Products Expo West.
The ABC Botanical Celebration and Awards Ceremony is underwritten by generous
contributions from the following members of the herb, dietary supplement, and
natural products industry (i.e., raw material suppliers,
supplement and tea manufacturers, analytical laboratories, a law firm, an
insurer, a media company, and a trade organization):
Alkemists Laboratories Amin Talati, LLC ChromaDex EuroPharma Grifcon Enterprises Horphag Research Indena USA, Inc. Martin Bauer Group
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MegaFood Natural Factors Nutritional Products New Chapter, Inc. New Hope Natural Media PlusPharma, Inc. RFI Ingredients, LLC Traditional Medicinals, Inc. United Natural Products Alliance
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