Silver Spring, MD—The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) recognizes individuals and companies making substantive, positive contributions to the herbal product industry each year. The winners of the sixth annual AHPA Awards are:

The AHPA Herbal Hero Award went to Edward J. Fletcher, chief operating officer of Strategic Sourcing, Inc., of Reading, PA. Fletcher is a chairperson on the AHPA’s Raw Materials Committee; he is also on the Advisory Council of the National Center for Preservation of Medicinal Herbs, and is on the Botanical Advisory Panel of United States Pharmacopeia.

	Edward J. Fletcher, Strategic Sourcing, Inc., accepts the 2011 AHPA Herbal Hero Award from Katie Huggins, AHPA board chair and Vice President for Quality Control, Traditional Medicinals. Photo Credit: AHPA/Andy Templeton Photography

The AHPA Herbal Industry Leader Award was given to NOW Foods of Bloomingdale, IL. The company is now in its sixth decade of providing consumers with high quality, affordable nutrition products. NOW’s many accomplishments include developing and sharing a new testing method to prevent supplements adulteration. Upon receiving the award for NOW, Technical Director Michael Lelah, stated “As an industry, we face the challenge of determining and ensuring purity, and we hope we have contributed to that effort.”

Michael Lelah, Ph.D., technical director of NOW Foods, accepts the 2011 AHPA Herbal Industry Leader Award, on behalf of NOW Foods. Presenting the award is Michael McGuffin, AHPA president. Photo Credit: Andy Templeton Photography

The AHPA Herbal Insight Award went to the Expert Advisory Council members for revising the AHPA’S Botanical Safety Handbook. The book will be available in late 2011 or early 2012. Recipients included Zoe Gardner, Ph.D., Michael McGuffin, Roy Upton, Mary Hardy, Tieraona Low Dog, M.D, Aviva Romm, Soaring Bear, David Winston, Lyle Craker and Daniel Gagnon.

The 2011 AHPA Herbal Insight Award was presented to the members of the Expert Advisory Council. From left to right: Michael McGuffin, AHPA president; Daniel Gagnon, Herbs, Etc.; Roy Upton, American Herbal Pharmacopeia; Zoë Gardner, Ph.D., Traditional Medicinals, and team leader; David Winston, herbalist, educator, and ethnobotanist; and  Lyle Craker, PhD, University of Massachusetts. Not shown: Mary Hardy, MD, Simms/Mann UCLA Center for Integrative Oncology; Tieraona Low Dog, MD, Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona;  Aviva Romm, MD, American Herbalists Guild; and Soaring Bear, PhD, pharmacologist. Photo Credit: AHPA/Andy Templeton Photography

The 2011 AHPA Visionary Award was given to James A. May, the CEO of Wisdom Natural Brands of Gilbert, AZ, for his dedication to making advances in stevia research. The use of stevia in place of artificial sweeteners may help to fight obesity and diabetes in the future.

James A. May of Wisdom Natural Brands accepts the 2011 AHPA Visionary Award from Steven Dentali, Ph.D., AHPA's Chief Science Officer. Photo Credit: AHPA/Andy Templeton Photography

Awards were presented at the AHPA meeting during Expo West 2011.
 

Published in WholeFoods Magazine, May 2011 (online 3/21/11)