African Plant May Help Fight Fat

Hoodia is a cactus like plant which tastes sour. It was advised to the team of 60 Mintutes that if interested to taste Hoodia then it would have to visit Africa. The reason behind is that Hoodia cultivates in Kalahari Desert in South Africa.

Mr. Nigel who is an interpreter and a linguist appointed Mr. Kruiper who is a skilled and qualified tracker. The movie ‘The Gods Must Be Crazy’ featured the Bushmen tribe.

In the desert Mr. Kruiper led the crew members of 60 minutes. Ms. Lesley asked Mr. Kruiper if he had tasted Hoodia. In reply with the help of Mr. Nigel he said that he likes to eat Hoodia on the arrival of the new rains, it is really delicious at that time.

After locating Hoodia Mr. Kruiper cut a petiole which bears a shape like a thorny pickle and took out the thorns. Ms. Lesley ate the Hoodia and expressed the taste like cucumber which she said was not bad at all.

What is the functioning of Hoodia? Ms. Lesley said that she didn’t experience any after effects, no feeling of uneasy stomach, taste was not at all funny, and pounding of the heart. She didn’t felt any wish to drink or to eat anything the whole day. She said that she have to believe that it worked successfully.

Ms. Anna who belongs to the Bushmen tribe is continuing their living in the primitive style huts and the Bush food which is collected from the deserts like it was done in the olden days.

It was the national laboratory of South Africa where the first scientific experiment of the plant was performed. As the Hoodia was mainly consumed by the Bushmen tribe and it was the native food and it was comprised in the studies.

According to Dr. Richard who is head of the British pharmaceutical company Phytopharm and is engaged in the production of weight loosing products, they have tested on the animals and they ate Hoodia and showed weight loss. Was the performance of Hoodia’s as an appetite repressor justified?

According to Dr. Richard it was the year of 1960 when the original investigation and research work was done and it took them a long time.

For recognizing and classifying the main element in Hoodia the national laboratory at South Africa took thirty years. After finding they sold the copyrights to Phytopharm.

Various experiments on the overweight volunteers have successfully produced results and so far Phytopharm has spent over twenty million dollars on the research work. Those who were tested with Hoodia only ate thousand calories a day. An average American woman takes about nineteen hundred calories and a man about twenty six hundred calories per day. According to Dr. Richard if you are consuming this compound on daily basis your hunger will decrease and we have noticed it.

What is the need of a copyright for a plant? According to Dr. Richard, the copyright is required for the use of the Hoodia as a weight reducing substance and also for the various other elements on the plant. It is not on the plant itself.

No body else can make use of the Hoodia for weight reduction? Dr. Richard said that it is correct that Hoodia being a weight reducing product breach the copyright.

But what in the case of other weight loss products that who assert that they have hoodia in it? X32 pills which is a product of trimspa have 75 mg of Hoodia. The company has also signed Anna Nicole Smith for advertising. According to Food and Drug Administration Trimspa has not proved that its products are safe.

There are companies which are publicizing their products using the clinical experiment’s outcome of phytopharm.

According to Dr. Richard it is directly a robbery. Various companies are just busy in stealing various details which they have not performed and they also have no information of what are they sticking on the bottles. After examination it was found that ranging between 0.1 and 0.01 percent of the quantity was present. And at the same time they make use the name of Hoodia on the bottle so they are not putting any effort.

It was not only Dr. Richard who was unhappy. After the Phytopharm conducted a press conference then only the natives of the Bushmen tribe came to know about the copyright matter. Mr. Roger who is a lawyer in South Africa supporting the Bushmen tribe who are also known as ‘the San’ was shocked to see this.

According to Mr. Roger the San did not knew about it. They have shared the details that guided towards the copyright. If you take any customary details or information without any compensation then it is called bio-piracy.

Mr. Roger said that he don’t want to go into the details as what was said and what was written. We want them to realize that they had done something wrong.

According to Mr. Roger the Bushmen tribe had witnessed so many problems and difficulties and he just wanted to help the tribe. First it was the black tribe that pushed them aside and then came the white migrants who almost destroyed them.

Mr. Roger said that with the change in the century there were different hunting groups in Namibia and South Africa those were killing the people of Bushmen tribe, which is well recognized and recorded.

The Bushmen tribe is still engulfed by unemployment, limited education, and alcoholism. And the way the situation is turning out they will also be deprived of the Hoodia. So, on the behalf of Bushmen tribe Mr. Roger wanted to sue the national laboratory

Mr. Roger said that if was a successful then lot of cash is coming to the San. According to a report there is a high demand of in United States of America. At last a conclusion was made and the Bushmen tribe will be getting a little share of the profits- if there are profits. But the condition is still doubtful.

The future of Hoodia is not sure. The business witnessed a major downfall in the previous year. Pfizer which is Pharmaceutical company having alliance with Phytopharm had spent more on the research work and at last withdrew when a pill has to be developed out of the active element seemed to be difficult.

Mr. Roger said that it can be prepared synthetically. We have already made milligrams of it. But it is costing us too much and it is not possible to make it synthetically. We could not prepare a metric ton from it or something that is sort of amount you would need to in reality start doing something about fatness in the various people.

Phytopharm took a decision to produce Hoodia in its natural type in diets, shakes, and bars, which means that a separate Hoodia plant will be needed. Seeing the obesity scene in America a lot of Hoodia will be needed. More quantity than what was growing in Kalahari and that is the reason they came here.

In South Africa the team of 60 minutes made a visit to one of the Phytopharm Hoodia plantations. A majority of the Hoodia plantations will be needed to meet the expected demand.

Agronomist Mr. Simon has a tall order: grow a maximum amount of Hoodia in just a couple of years. He added that starting with the new plant was a big challenge. The main problem was that we were dealing with the novel crop. According to Mr. Simon this plant we have taken out from the wild and we are starting to grow. We have no knowledge and it is different- diseases and insects which we have deal with.

How they can be so sure that will successfully grow enough? He said we are sure enough. We have a development program which would be of hundreds of acres. And this is how we will meet the high demand.

This could be big, given the obesity outbreak. According to the Phytopharm they are making some plans to announce their marketing strategies that will include meal replacement Hoodia elements on various supermarkets in the year of 2008.

Mr. Simon said these products are unlike types from the Hoodia Ms. Stahl tasted in the Kalahari Desert. He also said that it is bitter in taste that you tasted.

The main benefit of this species of Hoodia is that it grows at a faster pace. But it would be bitter. How bad it can be? Ms. Lesley found and said it is not good.

According to Phytopharm when their product reaches the market it will be licensed and efficient. They also assured that it will taste better.