RFI Adopts Hibiscus Through the American Botanical Council's Adopt-an-Herb Program

RFI Adopts HibiscusThrough the American Botanical Council’s Adopt-an-Herb Program

RFI is pleased to announce it has joined the American Botanical Council’s (ABC) Adopt-an-Herb programwith the adoption of Hibiscus (Hibiscussabdariffa, Malvaceae), an herbused in many traditional medicinal systems. For the next three years, RFI willfinancially support the addition of the latest scientific and clinical researchon H. sabdariffa to ABC‘s HerbMedProdatabase, an interactive and comprehensive electronic herbal database thatprovides hyperlinked access to the scientific and clinical data underlying theuse of herbs for health.

“ABC is deeplygrateful to RFI for supporting our nonprofit educational mission and thushelping ensure that information on H.sabdariffa in the HerbMedPro database remains current,” said MarkBlumenthal, ABC’s founder and executive director. “The information on ABC’swebsite, www.herbalgram.org, and specifically in the HerbMedPro database,serves as a reliable resource on herbs and other beneficial botanicals forconsumers, scientists, healthcare professionals, government agencies, and manyothers.”

With itsadoption of H. sabdariffa, RFIcontinues to support ABC’s ongoing efforts to collect and disseminate reliable,traditional, and science-based information on herbs, medicinal plants, andother plant-based ingredients. The Adopt-an-Herb program encourages companiesand individuals to “adopt” one or more specific herbs for inclusion in theHerbMedPro database. Each adopted herb will be researched monthly for newlypublished articles and studies, and the herb’s record in HerbMedPro will beupdated as needed. The result is that consumers, researchers, healthpractitioners, educators, media, government agencies, members of industry, andothers can use HerbMedPro via ABC’s information-rich website to access thelatest scientific and clinical publications on the adopted herbs.

HerbMedPro isan interactive, impartial, and evidence-based herbal database that provideshyperlinked access to freely-available abstracts of scientific and clinicalpublications on more than 225 commonly used medicinal herbs. Herb records inHerbMedPro vary in size from those with a very large amount of published data,such as Ginkgo biloba, with over1,000 summarized entries and links, to Acaciacatechu (cutch tree or black catechu in the pea family) with fewer than 50.A unique feature of HerbMedPro is that each linked abstract is condensed into aone-sentence summary – thereby saving a significant amount of time for theuser. HerbMedPro is available to all ABC members at the Academic level andhigher.

HerbMedPro hasa free “sister” site, HerbMed, which features 20 to 30 herbs from HerbMedProthat are rotated onto this site on a regular basis. This site is available atno cost to the public, thereby increasing the number of people benefiting fromupdated information on adopted herbs.

All herbadopters are recognized by ABC for helping to promote ABC’s nonprofiteducational mission and for helping to ensure that up-to-date herbalinformation on their adopted herb is readily accessible to the general public.This recognition will take place on ABC’s website,

www.herbalgram.org , and in itspublications, including ABC’s quarterly, peer-reviewed journal HerbalGram.

Moreinformation on the benefits of ABC’s Adopt-an-Herb program is available bycalling Denise Meikel, ABC’s development director, at 512-926-4900 x 120.

About Hibiscus sabdariffa

Hibiscus sabdariffa belongs to agenus of flowering plants with more than 200 species that are native totropical and subtropical regions across the globe. Various species of Hibiscus are used all over the world asa traditional tea. Hibiscussabdariffa has antioxidant, antihypertensive, diuretic anduricosuric (increases the excretion of uric acid in the urine) properties.Recent studies suggest that hibiscus may help with metabolic syndrome,specifically in lowering blood glucose, triglyceride, and total cholesterollevels. It has been shown to lower blood pressure in pre- and mildlyhypertensive adults and may prove to be an effective dietary control for bloodpressure in this population.

AboutRFI

RFI specializes in themanufacture and supply of natural, efficacious and science-based ingredients(including certified-organic as well as fair-trade products) to the food anddietary supplement industries. RFI’svertically integrated business model includes an extensive global network ofRFI-controlled manufacturing facilities, an in-house applications laboratory,as well as custom formulation, marketing and regulatory expertise. Founded in 1989,RFI is a privately held company based in New York.

For more information about RFI,contact Jennifer Diliddo at (845) 358-8600 or

jenniferd@rfiingredients.com

About the American Botanical Council

Founded in 1988, the American Botanical Council is aleading international nonprofit organization addressing research andeducational issues regarding herbs and medicinal plants. ABC’s members includeacademic researchers and educators, universities and libraries, healthprofessionals and medical institutions, botanical gardens and arboreta,government agencies, members of the herb, dietary supplement, cosmetic, andpharmaceutical industries, journalists, consumers, and other interested partiesfrom more than 70 countries. The organization occupies a historic 2.5-acre sitein Austin, Texas where it publishes the quarterly journal HerbalGram, the monthly e-publication HerbalEGram, HerbClips(summaries of scientific and clinical publications), reference books, and othereducational materials. ABC also hosts HerbMedPro, a powerful herbal database,covering scientific and clinical publications on more than 225 herbs. ABC also

co-produces“Herbal Insights” segments on the HealingQuest television program, available on more than 145 public televisionstations in the United States.

ABC is tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the IRSCode. Information: Contact ABC at P.O. Box 144345, Austin, TX 78714-4345,Phone: 512-926-4900. Website:http://www.herbalgram.org