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BBC News
Report on Hoodia Gordonii
By Tom Mangold -
BBC Two's Correspondent
Imagine this: an organic pill that kills the appetite and attacks obesity.
It has no known side-effects, and contains a molecule that fools your brain
into believing you are full.
Deep inside the African Kalahari desert, grows an ugly cactus called the
Hoodia. It thrives in extremely high temperatures, and takes years to
mature.
The San Bushmen of the Kalahari, one of the world's oldest and most
primitive tribes, had been eating the Hoodia for thousands of years, to
stave off hunger during long hunting trips.
When South African scientists were routinely testing it, they discovered the
plant contained a previously unknown molecule, which has since been
christened P 57.
The license was sold to a Cambridgeshire bio-pharmaceutical company,
Phytopharm, who in turn sold the development and marketing rights to the
giant Pfizer Corporation.
Fortune cactusA molecule in the cactus makes you feel full
When I traveled to the Kalahari, I met families of the San bushmen.
It is a sad, impoverished and displaced tribe, still unaware they are
sitting on top of a goldmine.
But if the Hoodia works, the 100,000 San strung along the edge of the
Kalahari will become overnight millionaires on royalties negotiated by their
South African lawyer Roger Chennells.
And they will need all the help they can to secure the money.
Currently, many bushmen smoke large quantities of marijuana, suffer from
alcoholism, and have neither possessions nor any sense of the value of
money.
The truth is no-one has fully grasped what the magic molecule means for
their counterparts in the developed world.
Blood sugarAccording to the British Heart Foundation 17% of men and 21% of
women are obese, while 46% of men and 32% of women are overweight.
So the drug's marketing potential speaks for itself.
Phytopharm's Dr Richard Dixey explained how P.57 actually works:
"There is a part of your brain, the hypothalamus. Within that mid-brain
there are nerve cells that sense glucose sugar.
"When you eat, blood sugar goes up because of the food, these cells start
firing and now you are full.
What the Hoodia seems to contain is a molecule that is about 10,000 times as
active as glucose.
"It goes to the mid-brain and actually makes those nerve cells fire as if
you were full. But you have not eaten. Nor do you want to."
Clinical trialsDixey organized the first animal trials for Hoodia. Rats, a
species that will eat literally anything, stopped eating completely.
When the first human clinical trial was conducted, a morbidly obese group of
people were placed in a "phase 1 unit", a place as close to prison as it
gets.
All the volunteers could do all day was read papers, watch television, and
eat.
Half were given Hoodia, half placebo. Fifteen days later, the Hoodia group
had reduced their calorie intake by 1000 a day.
It was a stunning success.
The cactus test in order to see for ourselves, we drove into the desert,
four hours north of Capetown in search of the cactus.
Once there, we found an unattractive plant which sprouts about 10 tentacles,
and is the size of a long cucumber.
Each tentacle is covered in spikes which need to be carefully peeled.
The San will finally throw off thousands of years of oppression, poverty,
social isolation and discrimination
Roger Chennells, lawyer
Inside is a slightly unpleasant-tasting, fleshy plant.
At about 1800hrs I ate about half a banana size - and later so did my
cameraman.
Soon after, we began the four hour drive back to Cape town.
The plant is said to have a feel-good almost aphrodisiac quality, and I have
to say, we felt good.
But more significantly, we did not even think about food. Our brains really
were telling us we were full. It was a magnificent deception.
Dinner time came and went. We reached our hotel at about midnight and went
to bed without food. And the next day, neither of us wanted nor ate
breakfast.
I ate lunch but without appetite and very little pleasure. Partial then full
appetite returned slowly after 24 hours.
The futureMr Chennells 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.
"I envisage Hoodia cafes in London and New York, salads will be served and
the Hoodia cut like cucumber on to the salad.
"It will need flavoring to counter its unpleasant taste, but if it has no
side effects and no cumulative side-effects."
For more information visit:
Hoodia Diet Reviews
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