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. |