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It was 23 years ago today, on November 1, 1988, that I filed
the incorporation papers with the Texas Secretary of State to found the
American Botanical Council. At that time, ABC was run out of my home (with a
handful of employees) and now we have 16 staff members and a beautiful site in
Austin, Texas, complete with 30 plus herbal demonstration gardens where
members, pharmacy and dietetic interns, and other visitors come to see, work
with, and learn more about herbs.
In the beginning, the ABC Board of Trustees consisted of our
good friend, economic botanist Jim Duke, PhD, who had previously retired from
many years of service at the Agricultural Research Service at the United States
Department of Agriculture; the late Prof. Norman R. Farnsworth, PhD, of the
College of Pharmacy at the University of Illinois at Chicago; and myself. (The
late Prof. Varro E. Tyler, PhD, would join the Board a few years later after
retiring from his position of Executive Vice-President of Academic Affairs at
Purdue University.)
Today, ABC is still governed by a highly motivated and
active Board of Trustees. Also, we are grateful for the service of a
diversified Advisory Board that provides ABC with advisory services on
research, technical, and educational matters as well as expert peer review for
our many publications, including HerbalGram, HerbalEGram, HerbClip, and
special publications. We are also deeply grateful to the members of the ABC
Director's Circle, a group of friends and allies who assist ABC in development,
educational, and marketing opportunities.
While ABC's commitment to providing you with the highest
quality, reliable, responsible, science-based information on the role that
herbs and other beneficial plants can play in self care and healthcare remains
the same, the ways we do that have grown over the last 24 years. In the
beginning, we published HerbalGram as
a black and white newsletter, and now it is a full color, glossy magazine, so
beautiful and educational that our members eagerly await its arrival in their
mailboxes.
We were committed to doing even more for herbal education so
we began writing, editing, and publishing books. ABC's first book, The Complete German Commission E
Monographs–Therapeutic Guide to Herbal Medicines had a major impact in the
medical and integrative health field and was the second most highly ranked
medical book in 1998 in a field of 3,500 medical books and related publications
published that year. In 2000, ABC published Herbal
Medicine: Expanded Commission E Monographs. This book has been an essential
reference by updating and expanding the most popular herbs in the market. In
2003, ABC published The ABC Clinical
Guide to Herbs, which was approved as a textbook for classes at several
universities.
And we have continued to expand the ways that we provide
herbal education—a constantly evolving website filled with useful research and
information, including the powerful database HerbMedPro®, monthly
electronic communications like HerbClip and HerbalEGram, and exciting new
projects that you'll hear more about in the upcoming months.
As ABC moves into a new year, I want to express to you our
thanks and deep appreciation for being a member of ABC and for your highly valued
support of our unique nonprofit mission, publications, and programs. With your
help, ABC will be able to continue providing its many educational services to a
growing world that is increasingly seeking accurate and reliable information on
a wide variety of medicinal herbs and other beneficial plants.
Gratefully,
Mark
Mark Blumenthal
Founder & Executive Director
American Botanical Council
Editor, HerbalGram & HerbClip
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