chemicals in the stem are said to prevent the body from
feeling hungry.
Hoodia grows wild in the very dry Kalahari and
Namib Deserts of South Africa, Botswana, and Nami-
bia. For many years, the San Bushmen who live this
region have eaten hoodia to dull their appetite on long
trips through the desert. Hoodia is an endangered
species. It is protected by both international and
national laws in the countries where it grows wild. A
special license is required to harvest the plant from the
wild and export it.
The politics of hoodia
In the 1970s, the South African Council for Sci-
entific and Industrial Research (CSIR) began a pro-
gram to investigate bush foods, including hoodia. As
part of this program, scientists isolated from hoodia
an appetite suppressant ingredient that they called
P57. In 1996, CSIR licensed P57 to Phytopharm, a
British Company that produces functional foods
whose active ingredients come from plants with tradi-
tional medicinal uses. Because hoodia is rare and
endangered, Phytopharm began the difficult task of
cultivating the plant on farms in Africa. Meanwhile,
Phytopharm partnered with Pfizer, a large, traditional
international pharmaceutical company, to work on
ways to extract and purify P57 from plants or to
make it synthetically it in the laboratory.
In 2002, a lawyer representing the San threatened
to sue the CSIR for ‘‘bio-piracy’’ of hoodia. The threat
of legal action resulted in an agreement that the San, a
poor and marginalized ethnic group in South Africa,
would share in the profits of marketing any products
that contained hoodia. That same year, Pfizer ended
its relationship with Phytopharm and P57. Although
Pfizer scientists had been able to make synthetic P57,
the company felt it was too difficult and too expensive
to manufacture in the large amounts needed to pro-
duce a commercial weight-loss supplement. In addi-
tion, Pfizer’s research suggested that the compound
might rapidly be inactivated in the body and that it
had negative side effects on the liver.
In 2003, with Pfizer out of the picture, Phyto-
pharm decided to market products containing natural
hoodia and continued their efforts to grow hoodia on
plantations in South Africa. At the same time, they
reached an agreement with Unilever, a consumer
products company, to find ways to add hoodia toFlowering hoodia plant.(Anthony Bannister; Gallo Images/
CORBIS. Reproduced by permission.)
KEY TERMS
Conventional medicine—Mainstream or Western
pharmaceutical-based medicine practiced by med-
ical doctors, doctors of osteopathy, and other
licensed health care professionals.
Dietary supplement—A product, such as a vitamin,
mineral, herb, amino acid, or enzyme, that is
intended to be consumed in addition to an individ-
ual’s diet with the expectation that it will improve
health.
Functional food—Also called nutraceuticals, these
products are marketed as having health benefits or
disease-preventing qualities beyond their basic
supply of energy and nutrients. Often these health
benefits come in the form of added herbs, minerals,
vitamins, etc.
Succulent—Plants with large, fleshy leaves, stems,
and roots capable of storing a lot of water. These
plants grow in dry environments.Hoodia