American Botanical Council Enters 25th Year

The American Botanical Council (ABC; Austin, TX) is entering its 25^th year as an independent, nonprofit education and research organization highlighting the science-based health benefits of herbs and medicinal plants. ABC was founded in 1988 by executive director Mark Blumenthal, together with noted ethnobotanist James A. Duke, PhD, and the renowned late pharmacognosist Professor Norman R. Farnsworth, PhD.

On ABC now entering its 25^th year, Dr. Duke says, “I am pleased and proud to see ABC approaching that monumental 25-year milestone. Nice work. It is so much bigger and better than I envisaged 24 years ago, thanks to Mark, of course, and the dedicated staff.”

As Blumenthal describes, he and Drs. Duke and Farnsworth initially formed ABC as a means of supporting HerbalGram, the seminal publication for which the nonprofit is most well known. HerbalGram has since grown from a grassroots newsletter into a full-fledged, peer-reviewed, quarterly scientific journal. ABC’s 25^th year will see HerbalGram celebrate 30 years of publication, with the 100^th issue going to print in late 2013.

“ABC started as a means of supporting HerbalGram, which at that time was a newsletter for many people in the disparate herbal community,” said Blumenthal. “Now in our 25^th year, HerbalGram has not only surpassed all expectations in terms of quality, relevancy, and impact on the herbal community internationally, but its success has allowed ABC to branch out and create many new means of fulfilling our unique educational mission.”

Read ABC’s full press release on the occasion here.