A small succulent which grows in the Kalahari Desert could be the answer to our obesity problems, reports Bill Corcoran in Johannesburg
Picture this: an organic dietary product that suppresses the desire to eat and significantly reduces a person's calorie intake. It has no known side-effects and contains a molecule that makes your brain tell the rest of your body you are not hungry.
If you are one of the almost two million Irish people either overweight or obese (13 per cent obese, 34 per cent overweight - Slán 2003), the existence of such a product would appear to be the answer to your prayers: with no hunger pangs wracking your body, successful dieting would be within your grasp.
But such a product is mere fantasy; it doesn't exist, right?
Well, inside South Africa's Kalahari Desert grows a small succulent called Hoodia gordonii, which has a spiny exterior appearance similar to that of cacti.
For as long as they can remember, San bushmen - Southern Africa's oldest inhabitants whose culture is intrinsically connected to the natural world - have eaten the Hoodia succulent during long arduous treks through the desert's inhospitable interior to stave off hunger when food was scarce.
The bushmen did not know why eating the plant staved off hunger, they just knew it did.
During the mid-1990s scientists from South Africa's Council for Scientific Research and Industry (CSIR) tested the plant, due to the San bushmen's occasional use of it as a food source, and they found a previously unknown molecule which they labelled P57 and proceeded to test it for toxins.
According to the CSIR, it was observed by the research team that Hoodia extract caused a decrease in the appetite and body weight of animals that did not appear to be due to a direct toxic effect of the extract.
After grasping the potential of the P57 molecule, the South Africans cut a deal with the San bushmen to compensate them for the use of the intellectual property rights associated with their traditional knowledge, which had been passed down through the ages.
"This agreement obliged the CSIR to pay to the San 8 per cent of all milestone payments received by them through the licensing of the P57 patent, and 6 per cent of all future royalties," says the San bushmen's legal representative, Roger Chennels, who finalised the deal in 2003.
While negotiations with the bushmen were ongoing, the licence for the Hoodia extract was sold to UK-based bio-pharmaceutical company, Phytopharm, in 1997, which, in turn, sold the development and marketing rights to the giant Pfizer Corporation.
Phytopharm and Pfizer then began to investigate how P57 worked and it was found the molecule affected a part of the mid-brain called the hypothalamus, which senses glucose levels and tells your body how full you are when you've eaten and your blood sugar levels rise.
Phytopharm's Dr Richard Dixey explained during the early stages of the research that the Hoodia appeared to contain a molecule that was around 10,000 times as active as glucose.
"It goes to the mid-brain and makes those nerve cells fire as if you were full. But you have not eaten. Nor do you want to," he says.
Phytopharm organised the first animal trials for Hoodia using rats because the species is believed to eat literally anything. However, after being given the Hoodia extract, the rats stopped eating completely.
When the first human clinical trial was conducted in 2001, a morbidly obese group of people was placed in a secure unit. All the volunteers could do all day was read papers, watch television and eat. Half the volunteers were given Hoodia, and the other half a placebo. Fifteen days later, the Hoodia group had reduced their calorie intake by 1,000 a day.
The clinical trial was considered a stunning success.
"No serious adverse effects were experienced by any of the subjects, and the safety data are consistent with a satisfactory overall safety profile," said Dr Dixey in a statement at the time.
Nevertheless, the production of a P57-based product hit a stumbling block in July of 2003 when Pfizer returned the rights of P57 to Phytopharm, which said the corporation had determined the "development of P57 might be best achieved by another organisation".
It is understood that Pfizer wanted to produce a synthetic P57 creation, but was unable to do so due to the nature of P57. However, Phytopharm successfully sold the global licensing rights for P57 to food company Unilever on December 15th last year, and since then both groups have put the product's research and development programme back on track.
Unilever's spokesman, Trevor Gorin, says his company is going to use its food technology to produce a product that will use the Hoodia extract in its natural state.
"As a food company we have great experience using raw ingredients. Flora pro-active spread, which can help to reduce cholesterol, would be an example of the successful food technology we have used. The product won't be a pill, it will a mainstream food product.
"It is too early to say what type of brand it will be, but the obvious candidate would be something like Slimfast," he says.
Over the past five years Phytopharm has also struck a deal with local land owners around the Kalahari to grow the vast quantities of Hoodia that would be needed to sustain the mass production of a Hoodia-based product.
"We are renowned for our sustainability approach, so part of the project, in conjunction with Phytopharm, is to cultivate the plant in a sustainable manner.
"In the wild it takes quite some time to grow and is quite rare. Consequently, it is a protected species in South Africa so we had to find a sustainable approach to the project," says Gorin.
Unfortunately though for the overweight, an actual licensed Hoodia- based appetite controlling product from Unilever is "at least two years away" due to the continued research and development that needs to be carried out.
So while you might have to be patient, help appears to be at hand.
The Kalahari San bushmen stand to make millions of euros if the Unilever product eventually hits the marketplace, due to the deal struck by their lawyer, Roger Chennels.
Although Southern Africa's first people, they have become incredibly marginalised since the Europeans arrived in the region.
The remaining 100,000-strong tribe lives in absolute poverty in small pockets along the edges of the Kalahari.
But Chennels is ecstatic: "The San will finally throw off thousands of years of oppression, poverty, social isolation and discrimination. We will create trust funds with their Hoodia royalties and the children will join South Africa's middle classes in our lifetime.
"The first meeting of the San Hoodia Trust was held in the first week of April, and the first milestone allocation of 500 000 rand (€63,000) has been received," he said.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), more than one billion adults across the globe are overweight and, of those, at least 300 million are clinically obese.
The existence of such alarming statistics has provided a financial incentive to hundreds of unscrupulous individuals who are trying to cash in on the potential of the Hoodia plant (pictured below), even though the plant is rare and a protected species. Dozens of unlicensed companies have set up websites on the internet claiming to guarantee the consumer's weight loss if they buy their particular Hoodia-based pills, powders or tinctures.
Unilever's spokesman, Trevor Gorin, says the company has tested most of the advertised products. "They turned out to contain only tiny amounts of Hoodia extract compared to the advertised strength, or none at all. These products are illegal and the producers have no royalty deal in place with the San bushmen," he says