Hosted on March 4 in Anaheim, California, during the annual Natural Products Expo West, the American Botanical Council’s 20th annual Celebration and Botanical Excellence Awards honored individuals and companies who have made outstanding contributions to the herbal and botanical communities.
2025 ABC Champion Award
Recognizing individuals who have been outstanding supporters of ABC and who have helped the organization promote and achieve its non-profit research and educational mission, whether through monetary support or contributions of their own time, this year’s award was presented to Chris Kilham, botanical medicine hunter, author, educator and yogi.
For over 25 years, Kilham has generously donated his time and ethnobotanical experience and expertise to serve as a source and peer reviewer for many articles in ABC’s quarterly journal HerbalGram and other ABC publications. Kilham has also authored compelling and informative feature articles and contributes original photographs, ABC shared in a press release
Over the course of his work, Kilham has traveled more than four million miles and spent thousands of days and nights away from home. He has fire-walked in the South Pacific, been made an honorary chief on Pentecost island in Vanuatu in the South Pacific, enjoyed a post as Honorary Consul to the United States on behalf of Vanuatu in the late 1990s, has made good friends all around the world, roamed rainforests and mountains, made friends with a prince, embarked on ceremonial journeys with shamans and explored wild places from deserts to rivers.
“It is my great delight to be awarded the 2025 ABC Champion Award,” Kilham said. “It means a great deal to me. For many years, I’ve had the good fortune and privilege to contribute to some of the publications and programs of ABC. This is not only an organization, but it is also a mission—a mission that brings together many people from around the world with diverse abilities, experience and visions, all moving to help establish botanicals in their rightful place. I’m delighted to be part of the mix, and I can’t adequately express how much this honor means to me.”
“I have known Chris since our early years in the herb and natural products industry in the late 1970s,” said Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of ABC. “I had a wholesale herb company in Austin, Texas, and Chris worked in the herb department of a large natural food store, Bread & Circus, in Massachusetts. That later became the first Whole Foods Market store in New England. During that time, I remember Chris’ passion for herbs and medicinal plants. He created various formulas, which were ahead of their time, for the fledgling industry.
“Over the years, I’ve watched him grow his interest in and passion for herbs—now for more than 40 years,” Blumenthal added. “And, during much of that time, Chris has been a strong and energetic supporter of the non-profit research and educational mission of ABC, to the point where he has become one of the most frequent contributors of articles for ABC’s publications. There is no question that Chris is a true champion for the herbs and rightfully deserves to be recognized with the 2025 ABC Champion Award.”
2025 Mark Blumenthal Herbal Community Builder Award
Herbalist Michael Moore (1941–2009), the founder of the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine, posthumously received the ABC Mark Blumenthal Herbal Community Builder Award, which honors individuals who have played a significant role in creating a sense of community among herbalists, botanical researchers, members of the herb and natural products communities and industries, and others who work in the various areas of medicinal and aromatic plants.
Moore’s teachings directly reached hundreds of students and, via their own schools and his books, thousands more. He disseminated his vast knowledge and expertise in herbal medicine using the medicinal plants of the desert Southwest. In addition to many clinical manuals, Moore edited or authored books including Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West (Museum of New Mexico Press, 1979), Medicinal Plants of the Desert and Canyon West (Museum of New Mexico Press, 1989) and Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West (Red Crane Press, 1993).
“I first met Michael Moore in his small herb shop, Herbs Etc., in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the early 1970s, and I attended some of his lectures over the next 30 years,” Blumenthal said. “I consider him a strong and positive influence on not only my own interest in and dedication to herbal medicine, but as one of the most inspirational and powerful influences in the modern herbal and herbalist movement.”
Quoted in an ABC press release, Steven Dentali, PhD, industry consultant, said: “I walked into a Michael Moore herb class on a cold Santa Fe winter night. The class discussion turned to tincturing ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens) bark and I offered that a high ethanol concentration would be needed. He gave me a quizzical look and suggested I stop by Herbs Etc., his store, the next day. For six weeks, he put me to work alongside Daniel Gagnon, paying me with cash out of the till at the end of each day. Looking for direction as I embarked on laboratory study with access to a bioassay screen, Michael provided me with a dozen Southwest desert herbs known for traditional antimicrobial use and one other noted for cardiac activity. That ‘control’ herb was the only one devoid of antimicrobial activity. Further work on two of the twelve, white sage (Salvia apiana) and narrow-leaf yerba santa (Eriodictyon angustifolium), became my ticket out of grad school.”
Rosemary Gladstar, the “Godmother of Modern Herbalism” and founder of United Plant Savers, stated: “Michael Moore is a legend amongst herbalists and certainly deserves the Mark Blumenthal Community Award for all that he contributed and still contributes to the herbal community. He was renowned for being a brilliant herbalist, practitioner and teacher.
“Michael founded one of the most respected herb schools in the country, which continues to offer long distance learning programs and classes as well as hundreds of hours of free resources. His books are classics and still considered necessary reading material in many herb programs. Certainly, in mine! We can also thank him for bringing to light the teachings of the Eclectic herbal practitioners who had such a profound effect on American herbalism.”
“But I think what is most lasting about Michael’s legacy is that he was just so uniquely himself,” Gladstar continued. “There was no one else like him, or who even came close. He was funny, warm, witty, incredibly smart, not very patient, sometimes grumpy, but always kind and caring. The thing is, you can tell a good herbal teacher by their students, and those students who had the good fortune to study with Michael are great herbalists.”
JoAnn Sanchez, RH (AHG), director of the Western Herbalism program at the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts: “I believe we have Michael Moore to thank, more than any herbalist of our time, for reawakening deep knowledge of the plants of the desert southwest and the mountain west. These plants have a place in our medicine bags because of him. He gave us an understanding of their pharmacology, habitat, harvesting techniques, delivery systems, and lay and clinical knowledge. It is fulfilling to me that throughout my career, my students listened to him by way of tapes and video and got to be entertained by his writing as they learned enriching lore and applications of our southwestern plants.”
2025 ABC Steven Foster Botanical Conservation and Sustainability Award
The ABC Steven Foster Award was created in 2022 and recognizes excellence in conservation and sustainability efforts related to medicinal and aromatic plants. It is named in honor of botanist, author and photographer Steven Foster (1957–2022) and commemorates his many years of professional interest, writing and advocacy work in this field.
This year, the award was presented to Anthony “Tony” B. Cunningham, PhD, a respected ethnobotanist, ethnoecologist, conservationist, artist and adjunct professor at Murdoch University in Western Australia.
Cunningham has 45 years of experience focusing on uses and trade of natural resources, including understanding value chain analyses and creating practical conservation solutions related to local livelihoods and sustainable use. He has taught students in Australia, China, India, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, Uganda and the United States (University of Hawai‘i) and has mentored master’s degree and doctoral students from diverse cultural backgrounds (including from China, Fiji, Indonesia, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda). His geographic areas of work experience include Africa, Asia, and Australia and, to a lesser extent, the South Pacific and the Arabian Peninsula.
“Tony is not only an internationally renowned ethnobotanist and ethnoecologist but also a fine artist and photographer,” wrote Josef Brinckmann, the current president of ABC’s Board of Trustees, who endorsed Cunningham for the award.
“I met Tony in the early 2000s through a German government-supported steering group that was tasked with drafting the first ‘International Standard for the Sustainable Wild Collection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants’ (ISSC-MAP), which relied on Tony’s prior resource assessment experience. The steering group involved participants from the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), IUCN’s MPSG, TRAFFIC and the herbal industry.”
“Over the decades, Tony has worked tirelessly, carrying out field research and studies for nature conservation NGOs, governmental CITES authorities and United Nations agencies, in recent years focusing on highly traded MAP species in the Boswellia, Commiphora, Griffonia, Prunus and Rhodiola genera, among others,” Brinckmann added. “It has indeed been an honor and a privilege for me to learn so much from Tony as he generously invited me to collaborate with him on projects including an EU-China Biodiversity Programme project ‘Sustainable Management of Traditional Medicinal Plants in the High-Biodiversity Landscapes of Upper Yangtze Eco-region’ (2007–2011) and, more recently, CITES-related research for the German BfN and also the CITES Secretariat.”
2025 ABC Fredi Kronenberg Award for Women’s Health
Mary Bove, ND, received the 2025 ABC Fredi Kronenberg Award for Women’s Health, an award created in 2018 and named in honor of Fredi Kronenberg, PhD (1950–2017) who dedicated her professional life to the study of medicinal plants and phytomedicines for women’s health conditions.
Bove practiced naturopathic family medicine, herbal medicine and midwifery for more than three decades. She now consults, lectures, writes and teaches on topics including naturopathic medicine, botanical medicine, pediatrics, natural pregnancy and childbirth, traditional food medicine and mind-body healing.
“I am grateful and honored to receive this award recognizing my commitment to my work, women and the plants,” stated Bove in an ABC press release. “As a naturopathic physician, midwife, medical herbalist and teacher, my message has reached many ears. I hope to see this message carry on and reach many more ears, and receiving this award will help achieve that.”
Bove earned a bachelor’s degree in clinical psychology from Trinity College of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont, in 1977, a diploma of phytotherapy from the School of Herbal Medicine in Tunbridge Wells, England, in 1987, a doctorate of naturopathic medicine (ND) from Bastyr University in Seattle in 1990 and a certificate of midwifery from Bastyr University in 1991. In 1988, she became an elected member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (NIMH, established in 1864) in London.
“For more than three decades, Mary Bove, ND, has been a beloved midwife, herbalist, naturopathic physician and educator, caring for thousands of people who have sought her guidance in using natural medicine for their families,” wrote Tieraona Low Dog, MD, speaking from her own professional experience and on behalf of ABC. “Her book, An Encyclopedia of Natural Healing for Children and Infants, has helped many parents, and more than a few pediatricians, feel confident in using herbal medicines for even the youngest among us. While many have sought her out for her knowledge and clinical acumen, it is her warm and down-to-earth way of moving in the world that makes her a treasure in our community. Dr. Kronenberg would be delighted that Dr. Bove is receiving this award in her honor.”
The ABC James A. Duke Excellence in Botanical Literature Awards
Recognizing authors whose books contribute significantly to the medicinal plant-related literature and the fields of botany, taxonomy, ethnobotany, pharmacognosy, phytomedicine, mycology and other related disciplines, the 2025 ABC James A. Duke Awards were awarded to Organic Chemistry: Miracles from Plants (CRC Press, 2024) by Jeffrey J. Deakin, PhD, FRSC (reference/technical) and The Heart and Its Healing Plants: Traditional Herbal Remedies and Modern Heart Conditions (Healing Arts Press, 2024) by Wolf-Dieter Storl, PhD, (consumer/popular).
Organic Chemistry: Miracles from Plants
“I feel honored to receive recognition from the American Botanical Council and am delighted to accept its 2025 James A. Duke Award for my book Organic Chemistry,” said Deakin. “I am particularly pleased that I am seen to be fulfilling my aims in writing the book: That is, to produce an engaging and readable exploration of the roles plants play in human lives and to create an accessible and reliable introduction to the field of organic chemistry.”
ABC Chief Science Officer Stefan Gafner, PhD, said: “The book Organic Chemistry combines storytelling with lessons in chemistry using constituents from natural sources as examples. The beauty of the book is that topics that are generally very complex, such as stereochemistry or nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, are explained in an accessible manner. The book may not turn everyone into an organic chemistry aficionado, but for those who need to study chemistry or want to learn more about the history, use and makeup of natural products better, it is a great way to learn.”
The Heart and Its Healing Plants
“Plants have been trustworthy healers for us and animal organisms since the beginning of life’s evolution; they alone can harness the sun’s light and clothe it in earthly matter,” said Storl, an ethnobotanist and anthropologist. “I’m really happy to receive this award. For many years, I have been a fan of James Duke.”
“The Heart and Its Healing Plants is a thoroughly researched, well-written account of old and current herbal remedies for heart conditions,” Gafner said. “The chapters describing the connection between heart ailments and emotional and spiritual well-being in European cultures really make Storl’s talent in storytelling and his expertise in anthropology shine. Jim Duke would have loved to read this book.”
ABC also gave honorable mentions to Ganoderma: Cultivation, Chemistry and Medicinal Applications, Volume 1 (CRC Press, 2024) by Krishnendu Acharya, PhD, and Somanjana Khatua, PhD, eds, (in the reference/technical), and Devoured: The Extraordinary Story of Kudzu, the Vine that Ate the South (LSU Press, 2024) by Ayurella Horn-Muller (consumer/popular).
2025 Varro E. Tyler Award for Investment in Phytomedicinal Research
This award recognizes a botanical ingredient, dietary supplement, and/or phytomedicinal products company that makes a strong investment in human clinical research to support the authenticity, safety and efficacy of its ingredients or products.
This year’s award was presented to the Korean Ginseng Corporation.
“I sincerely and truly thank [ABC Founder and Executive Director Mark Blumenthal] and the ABC Board of Trustees and staff for this great honor,” said Seung-ho Lee, director of KGC’s Laboratory of Efficacy Research, in a pre-recorded acceptance speech. “For many decades, KGC has been dedicated to conducting more than 100 extensive clinical studies, and this award recognizes our commitment to scientific research on Korean red ginseng.”
KGC is a leading producer of Korean red ginseng products for the wellness and skincare industries and is known for its flagship brand, JungKwanJang (formerly called CheongKwanJang), as well as its other brands, EVERYTIME, GOODBASE and DONGINBI. The company was founded as Samjungkwa in 1899 when the Korean Empire established a state-controlled system to regulate and promote ginseng production. (JungKwanJang roughly translates as “products rightfully made in government-supervised factories.”) The company was formally established as the Korean Ginseng Corporation a century later in 1999.
ABC’s Dr. Gafner said: “The amount of human clinical studies supported by KGC is truly impressive. In my 12 years at ABC, I have never seen such an extensive list of clinical studies carried out by one company, most of them documenting the many health benefits of Korean red ginseng for the consumer. What impresses me even more is that the company has also published studies for which the use of ginseng did not lead to a tangible improvement in patients. The publishing of such information is a testament to KGC’s transparency in their research and their commitment to good science.”
2025 Norman R. Farnsworth Excellence in Botanical Research Award
Recognizing those who make significant research contributions in the fields of pharmacognosy, ethnobotany, ethnopharmacology or other scientific disciplines related to medicinal plants, this year’s recipient was Ghulam Nabi Qazi, PhD, the director general and CEO of Hamdard Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (HIMSR) in New Delhi, India.
“I am grateful and feel honored by this recognition of my contributions to the knowledge of natural products science and the development of standardized products,” Qazi said in a pre-recorded acceptance speech.
Qazi received his master’s degree in biochemistry and his PhD in microbiology from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in Baroda, India. He conducted postdoctoral research in biochemical engineering at Technical University Dortmund in Dortmund, Germany.
Qazi has been with HIMSR since 2016. The institute, which he helped establish, focuses on medical education for both undergraduates and graduate students and is affiliated with Jamia Hamdard University (JHU) in New Delhi. Previously, Qazi was the vice chancellor of JHU, where he worked from 2008 to 2016. As vice chancellor, Qazi worked to integrate Unani medicine into pharmacy curricula. Unani is one of the traditional medicine systems of India, focusing on the uses of herbs and medicinal plants from the Greco-Arabic tradition. At JHU Qazi oversaw the completion of more than 30 graduate students’ PhDs.
“India is a vast storehouse of traditional medicinal plants that have been used for centuries and millennia in traditional medicinal systems, and recent years have seen much scientific and clinical research on their safety and therapeutic benefits,” said ABC’s Mark Blumenthal. “In the past decades Dr. Qazi has been one of the key Indian scientists who have been a formative and driving force in the development of modern research on Indian medicinal plants. If he were still alive today, I am quite certain that Norman Farnsworth would wholeheartedly approve of ABC’s recognition of Dr. Qazi’s immense body of scientific research with the ABC Farnsworth Award.”
“I am thrilled that a scientist from India has been selected as this year’s ABC Farnsworth awardee,” Dr. Gafner added. “Dr. Qazi has laid part of the scientific foundation on which our current understanding and therapeutic use of important medicinal plants like ashwagandha, boswellia and picrorhiza. In my opinion, his research has been among the most impactful for the herbal medicine community, especially as it related to plants used in traditional systems of Indian medicine.”