Used to be that, if you wanted to gather all the scientific information available for a certain herb, you went looking overseas and crossed your fingers. Not anymore. Thanks largely to the efforts of one man, the herbal industry in the United States has its own body of knowledge to contribute meaningfully to a global discussion of herbs and botanicals.

In the early ‘90s, Roy Upton recognized that this country lacked a system to provide formal guidance on botanical usage and manufacturing. As the supplements industry grew in stature, there was also an accompanying need to establish protocols for assessing the quality of ingredients in herbal products. Upton took matters into his own capable hands and established the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AHP) in 1994, making the first steps in a contribution to industry that has since revolutionized the use of and attitudes toward botanicals in America.

“Roy recognized a need that no one else had seen,” says Michael McGuffin, president of the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) and longtime AHP board member. “AHP filled a void where there once was nothing.”

Upton says that the idea for AHP came to him while he was engaged in a major political effort. As the U.S. Congress considered language that would go on to become the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) — now the crucible of industry legislation — Upton worked hard to educate the public and the natural products industry about the importance of passing the law. Between 1990 and 1994, he spent much of his time lobbying in Washington and organizing local communities across the country to oppose FDA limitations on supplements. He would approach customers as they shopped, warning them that they could lose access to their supplements within the year if DSHEA did not pass. During that outreach and lobbying process, people would talk about the products, and that talk got Upton thinking. “I remember people asking me, ‘What do we really know about herbs?’ ”he says. “People thought they hadn't been tested, but I would tell them about the studies in journals all over the world that we just didn't have ready access to, or didn't even know about.”

According to Upton, focus in the U.S. health industry shifted completely to synthetic analogs in the ‘50s, emphasizing chemicals over plants. But that didn't mean that botanicals research stopped outside the United States. Whenever questions arose about the validity of herbal medicine — What are the side effects? What about quality control? What about drug interactions? — more answers tended to exist overseas. Upton points to standards for herbs in Europe, China and Japan as examples. “I realized that America didn't have an herbal pharmacopoeia,” he says. “I saw not only a need to set standards for herbs, but more importantly, to educate the industry about the entire process, including the harvesting, drying, processing and storing of specific products.”

Through AHP, which now has monographs available for 26 botanicals, Upton has been able to achieve that and more. “There's nobody out there doing better quality work on monographs,” says Mark Blumenthal, who founded the American Botanical Council and contributes as writer and reviewer for AHP monographs. “People are finding uses for his work well beyond the borders of North America.”

Not only did Upton recognize a need but, as McGuffin points out, he had the energy and talent to fill that need. Upton has consistently managed to identify the right experts to serve as advisors and editors for specific monographs. “If he's working on a monograph for bilberry extract,” says McGuffin, “he'll find the one person in the world who knows more about bilberry fruit than anyone else.”

Upton believes that the real strength of AHP's monographs — what makes them unique, even in contrast to monographs in other countries — is review by a multidisciplinary group of professionals, including chemists, botanists, naturopathic physicians and practitioners of Ayurvedic medicine. Upton's goal remains the creation of a critically reviewed compendium of information about each studied plant, from both a cultural and scientific perspective. “Most analysis doesn't give justice to both,” says Upton. “The scientific community tends to ignore the whole body of traditional knowledge, and traditionalists tend to ignore the science.”

AHP has received a warm welcome overseas, and there was never much resistance in the United States once the serious work got underway. Although a faction of companies still refuse to employ adequate quality-control practices, that number is shrinking. Roy Upton deserves an immoderate share of credit for that development. When companies do embrace the ethical practices now shaping more and more of the supplements industry, AHP monographs provide a model for testing methods that uphold the highest industry standards.

Upton says that labs worldwide have started to do testing on behalf of AHP, and the pharmacopoeia now receives a significant amount of financial and in-kind technical support. “Folks believe in the mission,” says Upton. “If you improve the quality of herbal products, you improve the quality of the industry worldwide.”