Hoodia Gordonii - The Scientific Intervention
The first scientific study of hoodia was really sparked by
chance, as is often the case in scientific “discoveries”. What
started it all was not, in fact, an exclusive study into the
hoodia gordonii, a succulent that looks like a cactus. South
Africa’s national laboratory was conducting a much broader
study. It was only because the San tribesman were known to eat
hoodia gordonii that it was included in a study of indigenous
foods.
It is not surprising that the interest of the national
laboratory was aroused, and they started to focus seriously on
the hoodia gordonii’s properties. It was tested on animals by
including it in their food. The animals ate it, and then lost
weight. It was then a question of isolating the ingredient that
was behind this phenomenon. Or were these animals going to
secret weight watchers meetings every week, without the
knowledge of the laboratory? That may seem very fanciful, but
then so did the idea of losing weight through munching a spiky
succulent. This was, indeed, becoming extremely interesting.
This was no instant discovery with an instant explanation. The
originally research went back to the 1960’s, when it was not
obvious that hoodia gordonii had great potential as an appetite
suppressant. It was about 30 years later that the South African
national laboratory succeeded in isolating and identifying the
ingredient in hoodia gordonii that had the effect of suppressing
appetite. The ingredient was later to become known as P57.
When the laboratory found that ingredient, they applied for a
patent, and licensed it to Phytopharm, an English bio-technology
company. Phytopharm has spent more than $20 million already on
research associated with hoodia gordonii. This research, which
included clinical trials with obese volunteers, has yielded some
promising results. Subjects given hoodia gordonii ended up
eating about 1,000 calories a day less than those in the control
group, who were fed a placebo. That is an impressively high
figure, when you consider that the average American man consumes
about 2,600 calories a day, and a woman about 1,900 calories.
According to Phytopharm, if you take this hoodia compound every
day, your desire to eat goes down. That was illustrated
dramatically in the research. So, all was looking very promising
for the millions of obese men and women around the world.
Large pharmaceutical company Pfizer partnered Phytopharm in
expanding the research, and a synthetic form of the critical
ingredient was possible. However, the costs involved and the
possible volumes were too low, to make it worthwhile, so Pfizer
abandoned their plans. Phytopharm decided the only way to
produce enough of the product was to grow the plants in massive
volumes. So, that is what they set out to do, establishing
hoodia plantations in South Africa.
The hoodia being used in the plantations is not precisely the
same plant as that in the Kalahari, but is easier to cultivate.
It is an enormous task, but one that Phytofarm are confident
will bring success in meeting potential demand for genuine
hoodia products. However, Phytopharm says it hopes to have
meal-replacement hoodia products on supermarket shelves in a few
years
