ASP Awards Roy Upton, Varro. E. Tyler Award

On Aug. 16, 2011 the American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP) awarded Roy Upton, RH, DAy, as the 2012 winner of the Varro. E. Tyler award. The award will be presented at the annual meeting of the ASP, scheduled for July 28 to Aug. 1, 2012 in New York.

Named after the late Varro E. Tyler, Ph.D., ScD, former dean of the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, vice president of academic affairs at Purdue University, and first president of ASP, the award recognizes outstanding lifetime contributions to the field of herbal medicine.  Professor Tyler was a leading authority in evidence-based botanical medicines, including both plant-derived pharmaceutical drugs and herbal dietary supplements. He was the author of 250 scientific and educational articles, editorial advisor to Planta Medica among other professional journals, and the author of seminal textbooks on pharmacognosy and numerous popular books. According to the ASP nominating committee, “Roy Upton exemplifies the standards and principles that Varro Tyler sought to bring to the botanicals industry."

Roy has been working and practicing professionally as an herbalist since 1981. Trained in Ayurvedic, Chinese and Western herbal medicine, Roy is the founder, executive director and editor of the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AHP); is a co-founder, past president and vice president of the American Herbalists Guild (AHG); and serves on the Committee of Revision for the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) and botanical expert advisory committees of AOAC International, the American Botanical Council (ABC), and NSF International. Roy is also visiting faculty for the Master of Science in Herbal Medicine program at Tai Sophia, Laurel, Md., and the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Program at the University of Southern California, School of Pharmacy, Los Angeles. In addition, Roy is the staff herbalist for the California-based herbal supplements company, Planetary Herbals; is a member of the Standards Committee of the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA); and is an internationally recognized lecturer and author of numerous popular and peer-reviewed scientific publications, including the recently published Microscopic Characterizations of Botanical Medicines.

He has brought America's collective knowledge of herbal medicine to the world stage. Thanks largely to his efforts with the AHP, the herbal industry in the US has its own body of knowledge to meaningfully contribute to a global discussion of herbs and botanicals.

"Roy recognized a need that no one else had seen," said Michael McGuffin, president of the AHPA and long-time AHP board member. “AHP filled a void where there once was nothing.

Mark Blumenthal, who founded ABC and contributes as a writer and reviewer for AHP monographs added: “There's nobody out there doing better quality work on monographs. People are finding uses for his work well beyond the borders of North America."

AHP is proud of Roy and thrilled to share in the recognition of his lifelong work and dedication.