Brassica Protection Products receives ABC’s Phytomedicinal Research Award

The American Botanical Council (ABC) has announced that Brassica Protection Products LLC is the recipient of the ABC Varro E. Tyler Commercial Investment in Phytomedicinal Research Award for 2016.

Since 1997, Brassica Protection Products has been dedicated to the research and development of beneficial phytochemicals from cruciferous vegetables in the genus Brassica, such as broccoli (Brassica oleracea).

The company was founded by Paul Talalay, MD, and Jed Fahey, ScD, colleagues at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr Talalay was an early proponent of cancer prevention through the intake of specific vegetable diet-derived compounds and discovered the ability of sulforaphane to induce the production of enzymes that help eliminate toxic metabolites from the body. It was proposed that this was one of the mechanisms by which broccoli exerts its cancer preventive activity.

ABC Chief Science Officer Stefan Gafner, PhD, said: “By performing the necessary molecular studies to understand the mechanisms of action of sulforaphane, Dr. Paul Talalay paved the way for clinical trials with broccoli sprout extracts.

“These clinical studies, which showed that the extracts enhance detoxification of airborne pollutants associated with lung cancer and cardiopulmonary diseases, make Brassica Protection Products the worthy recipient of the ABC’s Varro E. Tyler award for 2016.”

The ABC Tyler Award was created to honor one of the most respected scientists in late-20th century herbal medicine and pharmacognosy (the study of medicines of natural origin). Professor Tyler was an early trustee of ABC, dean of the Purdue University College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences for 20 years, and vice president of academic affairs at Purdue. Tyler encouraged scientific and product integrity, and envisioned a rational phytomedicinal health care sector that valued the proper evaluation of products’ quality, safety, and efficacy.

“The enormously significant and pioneering research of Professor Paul Talalay”

Mark Blumenthal, ABC’s founder and executive director, said: “This year we are recognizing the enormously significant and pioneering research of Professor Paul Talalay in the area of human nutrition, particularly phytochemicals in plants in the family Brassicaceae (e.g., broccoli) in the prevention of certain cancers.

“Clearly, Brassica Protection Products has earned recognition from ABC for this award, and I am confident that the late Professor Tyler would certainly approve.”

Tony Talalay, CEO and co-founder of Brassica Protection Products, said: “Being honored with the ABC’s prestigious Varro E. Tyler Commercial Investment in Phytomedicinal Research Award is a wonderful tribute to a lifetime of research by my father, Paul Talalay, who has dedicated himself to understanding the body’s own protective systems and elucidating the benefits of broccoli, glucoraphanin and sulforaphane in promoting human health.”

The award will be presented at the 12th Annual ABC Botanical Celebration and Awards Ceremony on March 9, 2017, in Anaheim, California.