Hoodia - Weightloss industry's latest hope

Africa's poor may profit from appetite-suppressing plant called hoodia.

South Africa's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research isolated and identified P57 and patented it in 1996, later licensing British firm Phytofarm to develop and commercialize it.

The council argues that anyone who sells hoodia as a weight-reduction product outside that license would infringe on the patent.

In 1998, Pfizer signed a deal to develop the product but withdrew in 2003; a year later, Unilever entered a licensing deal with Phytofarm. Under legal pressure from lawyers representing the San tribesmen, Phytofarm signed a royalty deal with them.

Hoodia gordonii is no beauty, but this humble plant is Africa's latest cash crop, priced at $40 an ounce. The plant, which grows wild in the Kalahari Desert of southern Africa, was once used by indigenous tribes to suppress hunger and thirst when hunting. Now it's such a darling of the international dieting industry that doing an Internet search on the plant's name returns about 14 million responses.

The resulting demand is so hot, wild supplies have been severely compromised, smuggling is rife and farmers in southern Africa are trying to get in on the game.

"You start doing the sums; it's too good to be true. You want to throw your calculator away. It's an impossible phenomenon," said one hoodia farmer.

With international giant Unilever licensed to commercialize hoodia and international demand far outstripping supply, there's a mad race on to get plants to the market.

But the explosion of interest has not only put enormous pressure on the rare plant - listed as an endangered species by international treaty - it also puts intense pressure on an embryonic market that could be a boon for Africans if it could grow at a natural and sustainable pace.

Whether hoodia works as a diet aid has not been scientifically proven. Pills and capsules claiming to contain hoodia are widely available online.

Three types of hoodia contain the active ingredient P57: hoodia gordonii, the most common, which has a bitter taste; the similar-looking hoodia currorii; and hoodia officianalis, a smaller and rarer plant, preferred by indigenous Namibian tribes because it tastes sweeter.

South Africa is the only African country exporting hoodia legally. Paul Gildenhuys of the Western Cape Conservation Authority said the amount of hoodia exported to Europe and America under permit from that province more than doubled in the past year from 22 tons to 49, raising suspicions that significant smuggling was going on. He said there were reports of hoodia flowing through Western Cape province from other parts of South Africa or other countries.

Some in Namibia hope that if the market is brought under control, the hoodia craze could benefit the country's poor. Others fear that commercial farmers and giants such as Unilever could clean up while poor communities are paid a pittance for manual labor on hoodia farms.

"It's an irony. It could be a way for people who feel they are overweight to help people who face a daily struggle to put something in their stomachs."