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PRESS RELEASE

Handbook of Essential Oils Awarded 2016 ABC James A. Duke Excellence in Botanical Literature Award

AUSTIN, Texas (March 8, 2017) — The American Botanical Council (ABC) has named Handbook of Essential Oils: Science, Technology, and Applications, 2nd edition, edited by K. Hüsnü Can Başer, PhD, and Gerhard Buchbauer, PhD, as the recipient of the 2016 ABC James A. Duke Excellence in Botanical Literature Award. This is the second consecutive year that ABC has awarded its annual Duke Award to a text on essential oils.

The Duke Award was created in 2006 to honor economic botanist and author James A. Duke, PhD. Along with his many prestigious career achievements in economic botany and ethnobotany and decades of work at the United States Department of Agriculture, 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. ABC gives the award annually to books that contribute significantly to the medicinal plant-related literature, and the fields of botany, taxonomy, ethnobotany, phytomedicine, and other disciplines.

ABC previously recognized essential oils and their clinical applications with the 2015 award to Clinical Aromatherapy: Essential Oils in Healthcare, 3rd edition. Başer and Buchbauer’s Handbook of Essential Oils offers a different contribution to the literature by providing a greater scientific understanding of the production, chemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, and other relevant aspects of essential oils.

“Essential oils are one of the fastest growing segments of the herbal product market,” noted Mark Blumenthal, ABC’s founder and executive director. “Last year, we bestowed the Duke Award to Dr. Jane Buckle for her excellent book, which documents the evidence-based data for the safe and effective therapeutic uses of many essential oils. This year, we recognize another excellent reference book that provides much of the chemical, quality control, pharmacological, and toxicological bases supporting many of these therapeutic uses.”

Başer is a professor of pharmacognosy at the Near East University in Northern Cyprus, and Buchbauer is the head of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Diagnostics at the University of Vienna in Austria. “I am deeply grateful to Mark Blumenthal and the selection committee for bestowing upon my colleague and me this highly prestigious award,” wrote Başer. “The current and future research into essential oils and their volatile constituents is expected to lead to a better understanding and discovery of potential new uses of these valuable natural products.”

Buchbauer also expressed his gratitude for the award. “We are very pleased about the acknowledgement of our efforts to further develop the science of essential oils,” he wrote. “The goal to provide a strong scientific basis for essential oils was and is our everlasting concern.”

ABC Chief Science Officer Stefan Gafner, PhD, congratulated the authors, noting that “with its broad coverage of aromatic plant agriculture, essential oil manufacturing, quality control, and medicinal and culinary uses, this book has become the reference on essential oils in the cosmetic industry and beyond.”

Past Duke Award recipients include: Clinical Aromatherapy, 3rd edition (2015); Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge (2014); Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy, 2nd edition (2013); Medicinal Plants and the Legacy of Richard E. Schultes (2012; reference/technical category) and Smoke Signals (2012; consumer/popular category); Healing Spices (2011; consumer/popular category) and the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia’s Botanical Pharmacognosy (2011; reference/technical category); Botanical Medicine for Women’s Health (2010); An Oak Spring Herbaria (2009); and Mabberley's Plant-Book, 3rd edition (2008).

The ABC James A. Duke Award will be presented at the 12th Annual ABC Botanical Celebration and Awards Ceremony on March 9, 2017, in Anaheim, California. The event for ABC Sponsor Members occurs during Natural Products Expo West.