04.02.24
The nonprofit American Botanical Council (ABC) has named the recipients of the 2024 James A. Duke Excellence in Botanical Literature Awards, in both the reference/technical and consumer/popular categories.
The recipient of the reference/technical award is the “American Herbal Products Association’s Herbs of Commerce” third edition by Merle Zimmerman, PhD, Holly E. Johnson, PhD, Michael McGuffin, and Wendy Applequist, PhD.
The recipient of the consumer/popular award is “Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind” by Mike Jay.
ABC’s honorable mentions in the reference/technical category were “Holistic Cancer Care: An Herbal Approach to Preventing Cancer, Helping Patients Thrive during Treatment and Minimizing the Risk of Recurrence” by Chanchal Cabrera, FNIMH, RH (AHG).
In the consumer/popular category, the honorable mention went to “Seeing through the Smoke: A Cannabis Specialist Untangles the Truth About Marijuana” by Peter Grinspoon, MD.
The Duke Award recognizes books that contribute significantly to medicinal plant-related literature and the fields of botany, taxonomy, ethnobotany, pharmacognosy, phytomedicine, and other disciplines. The award was created in 2006 to honor economic botanist, ethnobotanist, and author James A. Duke, PhD. Duke’s career achievements included decades of work as the lead medicinal plant expert at the United States Department of Agriculture and authorship and co-authorship of more than 30 reference and consumer books. He was also a co-founder of ABC and served on its board of trustees.
Herbs of Commerce
“Herbs of Commerce” provides guidance to US botanical industry on the standardized naming of botanical ingredients. Since its first edition in 1992, it has been a self-regulation tool in the herb industry. Subsequent editions expanded to reflect contemporary botanical nomenclature and the inclusion of more herbs present in the U.S. market. The first edition had 800 separate plant entries, the second edition grew to over 2,000, and the third exceeded 2,800.
Each entry includes the standard common name of each plant, along with other common names, and the most recent corresponding Latin binomals. Certain entries also contain Ayurvedic and/or Pinyin (Chinese) names.
The first edition was recognized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an official reference for labeling herbal dietary supplements. AHPA filed a citizen petition with the FDA in 2023 requesting that the agency update its reference from the first edition to the third.
“On behalf of my co-editors, members of this edition’s expert advisory council, sponsors who made this important work possible, and the many other botanical lovers who generously contributed to developing this meaningful resource, I extend our deepest gratitude to ABC for the recognition of our efforts to support the herbal and dietary supplement industries with guidance on the consistent naming of botanical ingredients,” said Zimmermann. “We are truly honored to receive the 2024 ABC James A. Duke Excellence in Botanical Literature Award.”
Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind
“Psychonauts” is a historical survey of experimentation with psychoactive drugs and how these investigations expanded frontiers in psychology, art, music, medicine, and more. Jay’s coverage includes well-known stories like Sigmund Freud’s addiction to cocaine and nicotine to those of lesser-known figures like Paschal Beverly Randolph, on of the largest importers of hashish to the U.S. in the 1860s.
The text offers an overview of the culture of experimentation with drugs and how substances influenced figures such as dentist Horace Wells, whose work with nitrous oxide became the basis for the practice of medical anesthesia, poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Thomas De Quincey, an English author best known for the 1821 autobiography “Confessions of an Opium-Eater.”
In his review for HerbalGram, ethnobotanist Mark J. Plotkin praised the book for its “marvelous scope and scale,” and that “Jay proves himself a peer of writers like Thomas De Quincey in conjuring lost times and mysteries of the mind and the cosmos.”
Jay also contributes to the London Review of Books, Literary Review, New York Review of Books, and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. His previous works include “Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic,” “Stranger than Fiction: Essays by Mike Jay,” and “High Society: The Central Role of Mind-Altering Drugs in History, Science, and Culture.” In addition to his writing work, Jay also curates artwork for galleries around the United Kingdom, often to accompany and complement his written works.
“The plants currently being explored in psychedelic therapy have a deep and rich history in Indigenous cultures but have also been studied in the West for much longer than is usually recognized,” Jay wrote. “I’m delighted to accept the 2024 James A. Duke Award for ‘Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind,’ and to bring attention to the forgotten figures who pioneered the scientific investigation of mind-altering plants and drugs.”
The 2024 Duke awards were presented at the 19th annual ABC Celebration and Botanical Excellence Awards Ceremony on March 13, 2024, in Anaheim, California, as part of Natural Products Expo West.
The recipient of the reference/technical award is the “American Herbal Products Association’s Herbs of Commerce” third edition by Merle Zimmerman, PhD, Holly E. Johnson, PhD, Michael McGuffin, and Wendy Applequist, PhD.
The recipient of the consumer/popular award is “Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind” by Mike Jay.
ABC’s honorable mentions in the reference/technical category were “Holistic Cancer Care: An Herbal Approach to Preventing Cancer, Helping Patients Thrive during Treatment and Minimizing the Risk of Recurrence” by Chanchal Cabrera, FNIMH, RH (AHG).
In the consumer/popular category, the honorable mention went to “Seeing through the Smoke: A Cannabis Specialist Untangles the Truth About Marijuana” by Peter Grinspoon, MD.
The Duke Award recognizes books that contribute significantly to medicinal plant-related literature and the fields of botany, taxonomy, ethnobotany, pharmacognosy, phytomedicine, and other disciplines. The award was created in 2006 to honor economic botanist, ethnobotanist, and author James A. Duke, PhD. Duke’s career achievements included decades of work as the lead medicinal plant expert at the United States Department of Agriculture and authorship and co-authorship of more than 30 reference and consumer books. He was also a co-founder of ABC and served on its board of trustees.
Herbs of Commerce
“Herbs of Commerce” provides guidance to US botanical industry on the standardized naming of botanical ingredients. Since its first edition in 1992, it has been a self-regulation tool in the herb industry. Subsequent editions expanded to reflect contemporary botanical nomenclature and the inclusion of more herbs present in the U.S. market. The first edition had 800 separate plant entries, the second edition grew to over 2,000, and the third exceeded 2,800.
Each entry includes the standard common name of each plant, along with other common names, and the most recent corresponding Latin binomals. Certain entries also contain Ayurvedic and/or Pinyin (Chinese) names.
The first edition was recognized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an official reference for labeling herbal dietary supplements. AHPA filed a citizen petition with the FDA in 2023 requesting that the agency update its reference from the first edition to the third.
“On behalf of my co-editors, members of this edition’s expert advisory council, sponsors who made this important work possible, and the many other botanical lovers who generously contributed to developing this meaningful resource, I extend our deepest gratitude to ABC for the recognition of our efforts to support the herbal and dietary supplement industries with guidance on the consistent naming of botanical ingredients,” said Zimmermann. “We are truly honored to receive the 2024 ABC James A. Duke Excellence in Botanical Literature Award.”
Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind
“Psychonauts” is a historical survey of experimentation with psychoactive drugs and how these investigations expanded frontiers in psychology, art, music, medicine, and more. Jay’s coverage includes well-known stories like Sigmund Freud’s addiction to cocaine and nicotine to those of lesser-known figures like Paschal Beverly Randolph, on of the largest importers of hashish to the U.S. in the 1860s.
The text offers an overview of the culture of experimentation with drugs and how substances influenced figures such as dentist Horace Wells, whose work with nitrous oxide became the basis for the practice of medical anesthesia, poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Thomas De Quincey, an English author best known for the 1821 autobiography “Confessions of an Opium-Eater.”
In his review for HerbalGram, ethnobotanist Mark J. Plotkin praised the book for its “marvelous scope and scale,” and that “Jay proves himself a peer of writers like Thomas De Quincey in conjuring lost times and mysteries of the mind and the cosmos.”
Jay also contributes to the London Review of Books, Literary Review, New York Review of Books, and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. His previous works include “Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic,” “Stranger than Fiction: Essays by Mike Jay,” and “High Society: The Central Role of Mind-Altering Drugs in History, Science, and Culture.” In addition to his writing work, Jay also curates artwork for galleries around the United Kingdom, often to accompany and complement his written works.
“The plants currently being explored in psychedelic therapy have a deep and rich history in Indigenous cultures but have also been studied in the West for much longer than is usually recognized,” Jay wrote. “I’m delighted to accept the 2024 James A. Duke Award for ‘Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind,’ and to bring attention to the forgotten figures who pioneered the scientific investigation of mind-altering plants and drugs.”
The 2024 Duke awards were presented at the 19th annual ABC Celebration and Botanical Excellence Awards Ceremony on March 13, 2024, in Anaheim, California, as part of Natural Products Expo West.
