Brassica Protection Products Receives ABC’s Varro E. Tyler Award for Phytomedicinal Research

AUSTIN, Texas (March 2, 2017) — The American Botanical Council (ABC) announces that Brassica Protection Products LLC is the recipient of the ABC Varro E. Tyler Commercial Investment in Phytomedicinal Research Award for 2016. Since its founding in 1997, Brassica Protection Products has been dedicated to the research and development of beneficial phytochemicals from cruciferous vegetables in the genus Brassica.

The ABC Tyler Award was created to honor one of the most respected scientists in late-20th century herbal medicine and pharmacognosy. Tyler was an early trustee of ABC, and vice president of academic affairs and dean of the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Purdue University. He was the senior author of six editions of the leading pharmacognosy textbook, and numerous other professional and popular books and academic articles. Tyler encouraged scientific and product integrity, and envisioned a rational phytomedicinal health care sector that valued the proper evaluation of products’ quality, safety, and efficacy.

Through partnership with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Brassica Protection Products has laid the basis for understanding the medicinal properties of broccoli. Paul Talalay, MD, Distinguished Service Professor of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at Johns Hopkins, was an early proponent of cancer prevention through the intake of specific vegetable diet-derived compounds. He discovered the ability of sulforaphane, a compound produced by cruciferous vegetables, to induce the production of enzymes that help eliminate toxic metabolites from the body. It was proposed that this was one of the mechanisms by which broccoli exerts its cancer preventive activity.

"Being honored with the ABC’s prestigious Varro E. Tyler Award is a wonderful tribute to a lifetime of research by my father, Paul Talalay, who has dedicated himself to understanding the body’s own protective systems and elucidating the benefits of broccoli, glucoraphanin, and sulforaphane in promoting human health," said Tony Talalay, CEO and co-founder of Brassica Protection Products. “This award is a confirmation of Brassica’s mission to bring scientifically valid nutritional products to consumers. It is especially gratifying as it recognizes the company’s primary goal — to continually ensure quality commercialization efforts that honor the extraordinary quality of the science.”

After a number of additional studies evaluating the properties of broccoli extracts in vitro and in animals, Paul Talalay founded Brassica Protection Products with his colleague Jed Fahey, ScD. One year later, they published findings on the human metabolism and elimination of sulforaphane and other sulfur-containing compounds from cruciferous vegetables, paving the way for subsequent clinical studies. Paul Talalay and Fahey have published about half a dozen clinical trials with broccoli extracts, showing the ability to attenuate gastritis through reduction of the colonization of the bacteria Heliobacter pylori, and reduce the time to eliminate airborne pollutants from the body.

"ABC’s previous granting of the Varro E. Tyler Award was based on companies that committed to funding clinical research on their proprietary ingredients or products. This year we are recognizing the enormously significant and pioneering research of Paul Talalay in the area of human nutrition, particularly phytochemicals in plants in the family Brassicaceae in the prevention of certain cancers," said ABC Founder and Executive Director Mark Blumenthal. 

Previous recipients of the ABC Tyler Award include MediHerb/Integria Healthcare (2015); SFI Flordis International (2014); Wakunaga Pharmaceutical Company (2013); Horphag Research (2012); Bioforce AG (2011); New Chapter (2010); Bionorica AG (2009); Indena SpA (2008); and Dr. Willmar Schwabe Pharmaceuticals (2007).

The ABC Varro E. Tyler Award will be presented at the 12th Annual ABC Botanical Celebration and Awards Ceremony on March 9, 2017, in Anaheim, California, during Natural Products Expo West.