California. State Steps Up Fight Against Obesity With New 'Front Lines' Ad Campaign

 

Posted on:
Friday, August 12, 2005 03:08 AM

 

Sacramento - SACRAMENTO -- Parents Urged Not to Take Obesity Lightly The California Department of Health Services (CDHS) today launched a new statewide multimedia ad campaign urging parents to take more responsibility in the fight against childhood obesity.

 

State officials unveiled the new ads to more than 700 nutritionists, educators, researchers, retailers and policymakers who were gathered at the Sacramento Convention Center for a two-day Social Marketing Conference focused on obesity prevention. The "Front Lines" campaign positions a doctor and teacher at the front lines of the fight, educating parents about the lifelong results of poor eating habits and low physical activity levels.

 

The ads promote the importance of parental involvement in ensuring that children consume the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables, as well as engage in physical activity every day. By featuring a doctor and teacher, trustworthy sources to parents, the ads effectively communicate the seriousness of the epidemic of childhood obesity. "The increasing number of Californians who are overweight or obese is a public health crisis that demands action by government, private industry, communities and parents," said California Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Kim Belshe.

 

"These new ads will educate viewers about the risks of poor diet and lack of physical activity and spur parents and communities into action. Childhood obesity must not be taken lightly." Over the last two decades, the prevalence of overweight children in California has doubled. Among adolescents, the prevalence has tripled. Currently, more than one-third of 9- to 11-year-old children and one-fifth of middle and high school students are overweight or at risk of being overweight. Eating more fruits and vegetables every day can help reduce the risk of serious health problems and chronic diseases, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes and many common cancers. "Governor Schwarzenegger has delivered the bold leadership necessary to reverse the obesity epidemic," Belshe said.

 

"From increasing access to healthy foods in our children's schools to standing with business, education and community leaders to commit to improve California's health and well-being, this governor has taken action to turn the tide on obesity." "As the rates of obesity and overweight continue to climb, Californians are becoming desensitized to the epidemic," said interim State Public Health Officer Dr. Howard Backer. "People seem to accept it without considering the serious health risks involved. We are committed to changing this attitude in our practice and in the community."

 

The campaign, scheduled to run August through October, includes TV, radio and outdoor English and Spanish ads. It shows viewers that "too much high-calorie food and not enough physical activity" will lead to serious health risks among our children. The ads are part of a broad-based strategy led by CDHS' California Nutrition Network for Healthy, Active Families (Network) to educate low-income Californians about the benefits of healthy living. Efforts also include community outreach and public education activities, reinforced by the advertising campaign's call to action.

 

"We are proud of the work being done by the Network to reduce the alarming rates of overweight Californians, especially among low-income adults and Food Stamp recipients," said Dr. Backer. "Communities must recognize the health risks of obesity and play an active role in ensuring access to healthy foods and safe environments. The governor will be addressing this issue first-hand in his upcoming summit."

 

To encourage California's leaders to take action to fight obesity, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will convene a Governor's Summit on Health, Nutrition and Obesity on September 15 in Sacramento. Leaders from the business, transportation, education, government and public health communities will join the governor and commit to reforms that will improve California's health and well-being. The Network is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Stamp Program to urge low-income Californians to eat the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables and engage in physical activity every day. The Food Stamp Program helps low-income families buy nutritious foods for a better diet. For more information, visit http://www.ca5aday.com/ or call 1-888-328-3483. CONTACT: Ken August or Lea Brooks (916) 440-7660 Source: The California Department of Health Services CONTACT: Ken August or Lea Brooks, both of The California Department of Health Services, +1-916-440-7660 Web site: http://www.ca5aday.com/ Web site: http://www.dhs.ca.gov/

 

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Studies find obesity may affect personal wealth, too

It's familiar news by now that America's obesity epidemic is both dangerous and costly. Obesity significantly increases the risk of many diseases, including heart disease and diabetes, and is associated with at least 112,000 deaths a year. What has been less discussed and studied is the personal financial toll that obesity has on the 60 million Americans who are seriously overweight.

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Does Hoodia Gordonii work?

Hoodia Latina Aloetrade Hoodia Gordonii Information and News Hoodia Latina Welcom Frequent Asked Questions on Hoodia Aloe-Sabila Blog Hoodia Latina Aloetrade Hoodia Diet Pills Hoodia is the Solution to Weight Loss Newsletter Archives Hoodia Diet BBC Diet Plan Diet Recipe Aloe Noni Aloe Vera Noni Juices CBS NBC Links 60 Minutes Hoodia Gordonii Abs Diet African Hoodia South Beach Diet Appetite Free Diet Hoodia Suppressant Diet Pill Kalahari Cactus African Cactus Atkins Diet HGH Buy Hoodia Hoodia Gordonii Diabetic Diet Diet And Nutrition Diet Drug Diet Pill Does Hoodia Work Gardoni Gordoni Godonii Hoodia Gordonni Hoodia Hoodia 500 Hoodia 57 Hoodia 60 Minutes Hoodia Alerts Hoodia Warning Hoodia Consumer Alert H57 P57 Hoodia And Review Hoodia Cactus cholesterol chia fat blaster plus hoodia super slim 400 hoodia diet extra

Hoodia Diet Extra Cert of Analysis

See the certificate of Analisis for our product Hoodia Diet Extra

CERTIFICATE OF ANALYSIS
02-Nov-03
ITEM:	3817
	HOODIA COMPLEX TABLETS
EACH TABLET CONTAINS:		LABEL CLAIM	FOUND	% LABEL	RESULT OF
		PER CAP	PER CAP	CLAIM	ANALYIS
INGREDIENTS (ACTIVE)
CHROMIUM (AA CHELATE)		100 MCG	100 MCG	100.00%	PASSES
CALCIUM PYRUVATE		300 MG	300 MG	100.00%	PASSES
HOODIA GORDONII EXTRACT		50 MG	50 MG	100.00%	PASSES
CITRUS PECTIN		40 MG	40 MG	100.00%	PASSES
GRAPEFRUIT SEED EXTRACT		30 MG	30 MG	100.00%	PASSES
PRUNE		30 MG	30 MG	100.00%	PASSES

Ingredients Hoodia Super slim 400

Ingredients for our Product Hoodia Super Slim 400


CERTIFICATE OF INGREDIENTS - 3 SEPTEMBER 2004
ITEM 11259 - HOODIA 400MG CAPSULES
EACH CAPSULE CONTAINS
CONTENT PER CAPSULE
% OF TOTAL
INGREDIENTS (ACTIVE)


HOODIA GORDONII
400.0000MG
94.1176%
INGREDIENTS (INACTIVE)


STEARIC ACID
12.0000MG
2.8235%
MAGNESIUM STEARATE
8.0000MG
1.8824%
SILICONE DIOXIDE
5.0000MG
1.1765%

TOTALS
425.0000MG
100%

CERTIFICATE OF INGREDIENTS - 3 SEPTEMBER 2004
ITEM 11259 - HOODIA 400MG CAPSULES
EACH CAPSULE CONTAINS		CONTENT PER CAPSULE	% OF TOTAL
INGREDIENTS (ACTIVE)
HOODIA GORDONII		400.0000MG	94.1176%
INGREDIENTS (INACTIVE)
STEARIC ACID		12.0000MG	2.8235%
MAGNESIUM STEARATE		8.0000MG	1.8824%
SILICONE DIOXIDE		5.0000MG	1.1765%
	TOTALS	425.0000MG	100%

Ingredients chia hoodia fat blaster plus

Each Serving ( 3 tablets ) contains:

600 mg Pure Hoodia Gordonii Core Powder

600 mg Pure Chia Seeds

120mg of Citrus Pectin	To increase bulking in your stomach and decrease your desire to eat
90mg of Grapefruit Extract
90mg of Prune Extract
900mg of Calcium Pyruvate	Scientifically proven to enhance fat loss and increase overall weight loss in dieters. (Based on research by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition - increase overall weight loss in dieters by 37% and increase overall fat loss by 48%, as well as give you 48 mg of Calcium)
100 mcg of Chromium	To help regulate blood sugar levels.

Inactive ingredients:
DiCalcium Phosphate; Cellulose; Magnesium Stearate; Stearic Acid; Silica & Vegetable Protein Coating.

Is Hoodia For You?

August 11, 2005
 
By Herb Weisbaum

SEATTLE - Have you heard about Hoodia? It's the “revolutionary” new ingredient in all sorts of weight loss supplements sold at health food and online.

Even Amazon.com sells the stuff. Clearly, Hoodia is hot! And it’s easy to see why.

The ads promise that Hoodia will help you shed the pounds without feeling hungry because it contains “a miracle molecule… that fools the brain into believing you are full.”

Besides losing weight, the ads claim you’ll feel better, because Hoodia has “a feel-good aphrodisiac quality.”

Hoodia has another big selling point – it’s natural and not a stimulant. Many of the products containing Hoodia boast that they do not contain caffeine.

So just what is Hoodia? It comes from a succulent cactus that grows in South Africa's Kalahari Desert.

The San people (formerly known as “Bushmen”) who live there chew the plant's stalks before going on long hunting trips. They believe it increases their endurance, and curbs their appetite and thirst.

Is Hoodia for you?

"In its August issue, the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter advises readers not to “take a chance” with hoodia supplements right now, because no one knows if it’s safe, especially when used regularly.

There’s been almost no testing to see if these Hoodia supplements work, explains Dr. John Swartzberg, who heads the editorial board at the Wellness Letter.

”The only study we could find,” he says “was not published, was very short, and had lots of limitations."

Hoodia sales have been boosted by a number of news reports, including coverage by ABC, the BBC and 60 Minutes. (Read: African Plant May Help Fight Fat)

These reports focus on the Hoodia that grows in South Africa. As Dr. Swartzberg points out, Hoodia is grown in China, Mexico, even the U.S. (Texas), and scientists do not know if these other varieties contain the active ingredient that has been identified in the South African Hoodia plants.

“Even if somebody claims it's 100 percent Hoodia, you have no idea whether it is or not,” Dr. Swartzberg cautions. “You have not way of knowing if it's pure and what else is mixed in with it.”

“The bottom line advice,” he says, “don't take Hoodia until we know a lot more about it and you know the product you're buying is pure and safe.”

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Study: Obesity hits people with HIV, too

Randy Dotinga, PlanetOut Network Wed Aug 10, 7:25 PM ET

SUMMARY: A new study suggests that as HIV-positive people in the U.S. remain healthy, they should be more concerned about weight gain than loss.

The stereotype of the thin, gaunt AIDS patient may be a relic in the United States. A new study released this week provides some startling news about HIV-positive people: As they become healthier, they're getting fat, just like everybody else.

Researchers found that a whopping 45 percent of HIV patients studied in Philadelphia were overweight or obese. Their weight gain doesn't appear to be due to lipodistrophy, a side effect of AIDS drugs that causes unusual fat deposits in various parts of the body. Instead, the patients seemed to be fat for the usual reasons -- they eat too much and exercise too little.

It's not immediately clear what the research findings mean for HIV-positive gay men. The study, published in the Aug. 15 issue of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, didn't examine the sexual orientation of HIV patients. It looked at 1,669 HIV-positive patients who had visited several Philadelphia hospitals since 1999; 22 percent were women, and 60 percent were black.

Overall, 31 percent of the patients were overweight, meaning they had body mass indexes -- a measurement taking into account height and weight -- between 25 and 30. Fourteen percent were obese, with BMIs higher than 30.

A 5'9" person would need to weigh at least 169 pounds to be considered overweight and 203 pounds to be obese.

Only 9 percent of the patients were considered to be in a "wasting" state, meaning they had become too thin.

The findings suggest that two public health problems -- HIV and obesity -- are intersecting, especially in African-American women, said Gregg Gonsalves, director of treatment and prevention advocacy at Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC). This is happening as HIV patients live longer and confront the run-of-the-mill problems that healthy people face.

"I'm HIV-positive, and I have to worry about heart disease, cancer and everything else," Gonsalves said. "I quit smoking a year ago. Maybe five or six years ago, I would have thought, 'I'm going to die of HIV, why give up cigarettes?'"

Gonsalves doesn't feel that way anymore. He stopped smoking, he said, "because I don't want to drop dead of a heart attack."

---

If you'd like to know more, you can find stories related to Study: Obesity hits people with HIV, too.

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Protecting indigenous knowledge systems

Emmanuel Koro
10 August 2005 07:20
Haworthia is used as a protective charm, particularly against lightning. (Photo: Darryl King) A coalition of female traditional leaders in South Africa are implementing a groundbreaking approach towards improving the lives of rural communities’ development through the management of indigenous knowledge systems and sustainable exploitation of natural resources with nutritional and medicinal values. This initiative was prompted by projects currently running in South Africa to commercialise the use of indigenous plants, in order to alleviate poverty by creating new forms of generating income. As long as these projects continue without a defined strategy that promotes conservation of resources, there is a high risk that indigenous plants may be over-harvested. Urban dwellers are already flocking to rural areas to look for herbs with medicinal and nutritional properties that may suppress the impact of HIV/Aids-related illnesses. The over-harvesting of the African potato has been cited as a prime example of the threat to indigenous plants. The women interviewed said that indigenous plants played an important role in supplying their daily socio-economic needs. Wild plants are used to treat many health problems, including coughs, headaches, diarrhoea, skin rashes, rheumatism and arthritis, and to heal wounds. Some are used to ease the travails of birth. Many are also sources of food for communities, wherein lies the link between the nutritional and medicinal values of indigenous plants. Just as medical doctors sometimes tell patients what kinds of food they should eat when ill, the women said this was similar to the way they administered traditional medicines in their communities. It is clear that, while the nutritional and medicinal values of indigenous plants are critical to the survival of rural residents, they also have potential to lift these communities out of poverty through sustainable commercial exploitation. To achieve this, the women believe that the Management of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (MIKS) project should link traditional and modern conservation methods. This project is being jointly funded by the WK Kellogg Foundation and the European Union-funded project, Conservation and Development Opportunities from Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity in Communal Land of Southern Africa. This project is active in eight Southern African Development Community countries: Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In addition, in July 2004 South Africa’s Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and ResourceAfrica, a South Africa-based conservation agency, formed a partnership to implement the MIKS project. “The ResourceAfrica and CSIR partnership was initiated at the launch of indigenous cuisines in Phalaborwa,” said Rest Kanju, project manager for ResourceAfrica. The MIKS project also seeks to assist rural communities in protecting their rich indigenous knowledge systems about the functions of indigenous plants from being illegally acquired and patented by unscrupulous western pharmaceutical and food companies. To ensure sustainability and better management of indigenous plants, the project will focus on the role of female traditional leaders in managing the harvesting and exploitation of wild plants. Through traditional forums, workshops and media publicity, awareness about best practice will be created in communities to manage and sustain indigenous knowledge. The partnership between the CSIR and ResourceAfrica is of strategic importance. The CSIR is “the premier technology and research organisation in Africa committed to innovation, supporting sustainable development and economic growth and creating value for clients, partners and stakeholders”. ResourceAfrica champions new collaborative management approaches to the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources in Africa. It aims to deliver tangible and equitable community benefits that in turn help encourage more effective resource conservation. The women aim to manage indigenous knowledge systems actively to prevent these from being illegally acquired by foreign agencies, with no direct benefits flowing to communities. Matshidiso Moroka, CSIR’s programme manager of technology for development, said that the South African government recently promulgated the Biodiversity Act, which also addresses the need to protect indigenous knowledge systems. She said that, among other things, the Act states that if any person wishes to do bioprospecting, they must first apply for a permit. “The Act also requires bioprospecting companies to provide benefit-sharing arrangements that have the approval of all stakeholders before they will be granted a research permit,” she added. Apart from protecting indigenous knowledge systems from being illegally acquired and exploited by outsiders without benefiting the true owners, the traditional leaders said there is an urgent need to ensure that this knowledge is documented and not only transmitted orally from one generation to the next. At present, elderly people are the main custodians of this knowledge. The women have asked for assistance from the government to protect their indigenous knowledge systems. They said this could be achieved through enforcement of the Biodiversity Act. This includes researchers studying indigenous plants should declare their intentions publicly and also make it clear how they would enter into benefit-sharing agreements with the communities from which they intend to acquire this knowledge. Meanwhile, the women have expressed concern that, if their campaign within South Africa succeeds, agents of multi-national pharmaceutical companies may simply turn to exploiting other Southern African communities, which may not have mechanisms to protect their own indigenous knowledge systems. Together with the CSIR and ResourceAfrica, the women want the SADC to adopt a uniform approach towards managing indigenous knowledge systems. In July 2004, female traditional leaders from South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland explored the role of traditional leaders in the conservation and promotion of indigenous foods and resources at a workshop in Phalaborwa, Limpopo. The workshop identified the manufacture of marula-based products, essential oils and the cultivation of mopani worms as examples of viable and sustainable business ventures. Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana, the Kellogg Foundation’s regional director for Southern Africa, said: “The CSIR has, through interaction with rural communities, been able to adopt and adapt appropriate technologies that have contributed positively to the socio-economic development of these communities. We believe this funding will contribute to food security and culturally sustainable socio-economic growth and development through the combination of indigenous food and natural resources with technology.” The South African government has a good track record for promoting benefit-sharing between indigenous communities and the private and public sectors through its development agency, CSIR. About two years ago, CSIR and Khoisan communities signed a benefit-sharing agreement with a reputable US-based pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, for the sustainable and commercial exploitation of Hoodia gordonii, which contains the compound P57, an appetite-suppressant that helps to reduce obesity. Under this agreement, the Khoisan communities (the acknowledged source of knowledge on the medicinal value of Hoodia gordonii) were granted 6% of all royalties, should the product prove successful. This agreement sets an important precedent, making it unethical for reputable companies to fail to sign benefit-sharing agreements with the communities from which they acquired indigenous knowledge. Nevertheless, unscrupulous pharmaceutical companies continue to profit from the illegal exploitation of indigenous knowledge without compensating communities, but it is hoped that this initiative by South Africa’s female traditional leaders to take control of their indigenous knowledge systems will combat this negative trend. Implementation The next stage of this initiative is to devise an implementation plan that will yield tangible results. The women say they intend to uplift the socio-economic well-being of their communities by establishing community business enterprises that produce, market and sell traditional foods and medicines. A traditional food production centre and restaurant has already been set up in the Rharhabe Kingdom in the Eastern Cape, and local women are being trained to manage it. A group of about 20 female Rharhabe traditional leaders also plan to develop a traditional medicines pharmacy. They believe that rural economies in South Africa have a unique service to provide to the nation and that, if well marketed, this could significantly improve rural livelihoods. To promote the use of traditional foods, they have also recently published a recipe book, which is sold at US$30 per copy.

On the Net

High body mass and its health risks

FACT FILE

Relative risk* of developing various medical conditions by body mass index BMI of 30.0 to 34.9 BMI greater than or equal to 40 MEDICAL CONDITION MEN WOMEN MEN WOMEN Type 2 diabetes 10.10 7.24 10.65 19.89 Coronary heart disease 16.01 12.56 13.97 19.22 High blood pressure 48.95 47.95 64.53 63.16 Osteoarthritis 4.66 9.94 10.04 17.19 TYPES OF CANCER MEN WOMEN MEN WOMEN Breast -- 1.63 -- 1.70 Colon 1.47 1.33 1.84 1.36 Kidney .36 1.66 1.70 1.70** Liver 1.90 1.40 4.52 1.68 Prostate 1.20 -- 1.34 --

* Relative risk of 2 indicates a person is twice as likely to develop condition as a person with a normal body mass index (18.5 to 24.9). A body mass index of 30.0 or higher is considered obese. ** Relative risk of developing kidney cancer rises to 4.75 in women with BMI greater than or equal to 40. SOURCES: American Obesity Association; American Cancer Society; New England Journal of Medicine

Cost of Obesity

Between 1987 and 2002, private spending on obesity-linked medical problems mushroomed from $3.6 billion, or 2% of all health spending, to $36.5 billion or 11.6% of spending, according to a study by Ken Thorpe, professor at Emory University.

Hoodia Diet and Nutrition

Hoodia Latina Aloetrade Hoodia Gordonii Information and News Hoodia Latina Welcom Frequent Asked Questions on Hoodia Aloe-Sabila Blog Hoodia Latina Aloetrade Hoodia Diet Pills Hoodia is the Solution to Weight Loss Newsletter Archives Hoodia Diet BBC Diet Plan Diet Recipe Aloe Noni Aloe Vera Noni Juices CBS NBC Links 60 Minutes Hoodia Gordonii Abs Diet African Hoodia South Beach Diet Appetite Free Diet Hoodia Suppressant Diet Pill Kalahari Cactus African Cactus Atkins Diet HGH Buy Hoodia Hoodia Gordonii Diabetic Diet Diet And Nutrition Diet Drug Diet Pill Does Hoodia Work Gardoni Gordoni Godonii Hoodia Gordonni Hoodia Hoodia 500 Hoodia 57 Hoodia 60 Minutes Hoodia Alerts Hoodia Warning Hoodia Consumer Alert H57 P57 Hoodia And Review Hoodia Cactus cholesterol chia fat blaster plus hoodia super slim 400 hoodia diet extra

Globesity

Perspectives in Health Magazine
The Magazine of the Pan American Health Organization
Volume 7, Number 3, 2002

Globesity:
The Crisis of
Growing
Proportions
by Donna Eberwine
Photos by Hermínio Oliveira
You are in your car at the intersection of University Ave. and N. Mesa in El Paso, Texas, less than a mile from the U.S.-Mexico border. Suddenly your stomach growls, your mouth waters and you feel a strong craving for something to eat. No problem. Just a block up the street is Taco Bell, where this week’s special is the ‘Extreme Quesadilla’ for only $1.24. There’s a drive-through window, so you don’t even have to get out of your car.

If you’re not in the mood for Mexican, no matter. There are four or five convenience stores within half a mile offering everything from doughnuts to 44-ounce soft drinks and one-third-pound hot dogs, all at bargain prices. A bit farther, but only a couple of minutes by car, are Arby’s, Burger King, Jack-inthe- Box, McDonald’s and Wendy’s—not to mention Pizza Pro’s, Peking Garden, Wienerschnitzel and Rib Hut.

For Jose Roman, a 72-year-old pediatrician who has practiced for four decades in this west central El Paso neighborhood, the culinary abundance is much more a bane than a blessing. "Every three blocks you see restaurants advertising large portions at low prices," he says. "Two burgers for 99 cents." He and others are convinced it’s one of the reasons El Pasoans are getting fatter every year.

The trend is a disturbing one, and it is readily evident in Roman’s young, mostly Mexican-American patients. The number of obese children in his practice has increased dramatically, he says, particularly in the last five to 10 years. "Probably 20 to 30 percent of the children I see each month are significantly overweight."

The problem is even worse among adults, according to Muriel Hall, executive director of the El Paso Diabetes Association. "El Paso stands above many other communities in being chunky," she says.

In fact, however, El Paso is not alone in having what public health advocates describe as an epidemic of obesity. In the United States as a whole, the latest data show that two out of three adults are overweight, and nearly one in three is obese. What is more alarming, similar trends are emerging around the world, in both developed and developing regions. In countries as diverse as the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Kuwait and Jamaica, at least half the population is overweight and one in five is obese.

The health impact of this obesity pandemic can be seen most clearly in fast-rising rates of Type 2 diabetes, for which obesity is the main known risk factor. According to the Brussels-based International Diabetes Federation, the number of diabetics worldwide has grown to more than 150 million, a fivefold increase since 1985.

Obesity is also known to put people at higher risk of other serious health problems, including cardiovascular disease, arthritis, gallbladder and kidney disease, and cancers of the breast, colon, uterus, esophagus and kidneys. In the United States alone the direct health care costs of obesity now exceed $100 billion a year, according to the American Obesity Association.

Add to this the social stigma, psychological distress and economic discrimination often suffered by the obese, and the costs are heavy in terms of both health and quality of life.

"The combined impact of obesity and weight-related illness is in fact as great as if not greater than tobacco," says Neville Rigby, director of policy and public affairs for the London-based International Obesity Task Force. "We need to approach the obesity issue with the same degree of concern and vigor."

A global race

The spread of the obesity epidemic to a growing number of countries and the rapid rates of increase in recent years are what have public health advocates worried. Last year the Washington-based World-Watch Institute reported that, for the first time in history, estimates of the number of overweight people in the world rival estimates of those who are malnourished. In its 2002 World Health Report, the World Health Organization (WHO) ranked obesity among the top 10 risks to human health worldwide.

The epidemic has been well documented and extensively studied in the United States, where as early as the 1960s nearly half of Americans were overweight and more than 13 percent were obese. Today some 64 percent of U.S. adults are overweight and 30.5 percent are obese. That is double the obesity rate of two decades earlier and one-third higher than just 10 years ago.

But the United States is not even the leader in the global race to national corpulence. That distinction is held by Samoa, where two-thirds of all women and half of men are obese. In the Americas, Canada trails somewhat behind the United States, with 50 percent of adults overweight and 13.4 percent obese. But data from Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay show more than half of these countries’ populations are overweight, and more than 15 percent are obese.

Even more disturbing, the trend is growing among the Region’s children. Twice as many U.S. children are overweight now than were two decades ago. In Chile, Mexico and Peru, an alarming one in four 4- to 10-year-olds is overweight.

Walmir Coutinho, professor of endocrinology at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and coordinator of the Latin American Consensus on Obesity, notes that rates of childhood obesity increased 66 percent in the United States during the last two decades, but a whopping 240 percent during the same period in Brazil.

"Obesity and overweight are increasing much faster in Latin America than in North America or Europe," he says. "They are fast replacing hunger and malnutrition as contributors to mortality."

The growing body of public health literature on the "globesity" epidemic places the bulk of the blame not on individuals but on globalization and development, with poverty as an exacerbating factor.

In what experts term the "nutrition transition," societies everywhere are moving away from traditional local foods and methods of preparation to mass-produced processed foods that are generally higher in fat and calories and lower in fiber and micronutrients, particularly iron, iodine and vitamin A.

The issue is not just junk food. A large part of the problem is economic. In general, mass-marketed foods are getting cheaper, particularly in urban areas, while fresh foods are becoming more expensive.

"In Latin America, maybe you can go to the jungle and pick your own fruit, but in the city, in supermarkets, fruits and vegetables are expensive," says Enrique Jacoby, an expert on obesity at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Flipping through pages of country data, he observes: "In lots of countries, you can see the increases in consumption of cooking oils, sugar, sweetened drinks and cereals, primarily rice and noodles, while consumption of fruits, vegetables and legumes is going down. Having a big wallet makes a difference. The poor are forced by their limited resources to eat less healthy foods."

Along with this nutrition transition, improvements in technology and the evolution of the modern metropolis have created an "obesogenic environment" in which new patterns of work, transportation and leisure have people around the world leading less active, more sedentary lives.

"Even lower income groups have growing access to conveniences such as television, telephones and cars," says Coutinho. "These predispose people to sedentary habits and are leading to dramatic changes in lifestyle that contribute to the problem."

Trends and subtrends

While obesity is on the rise globally, its underlying dynamics vary across regions. In poor countries people tend to get fatter as their incomes rise, while in developed and transitional economies, higher income correlates with slimmer shapes.

Studies on the relationship between poverty and overweight have identified a number of socioeconomic factors at work. Some have linked low stature and growth stunting due to fetal and early malnutrition with obesity in later life. Cultural factors are also important: many minority and lower income groups associate fatness with prosperity, a perception not shared in better off and better educated sectors of society.

Gender differences further complicate the picture. In general, women tend to have higher rates of obesity than men. But rates of overweight are higher for men in developed countries yet higher for women in developing ones. Moreover, in many developing countries, the relationship between socioeconomic status and obesity is positive for men but negative for women.

North meets South

In El Paso, a culturally blended city of 560,000, the largely Mexican-American population is experiencing its own nutrition and lifestyle transitions that in some ways reflect trends in both the developed and the developing world. The results are high rates of overweight and obesity, along with negative health consequences such as diabetes.

PAHO's U.S.-Mexico Border Office in El Paso collected local data on overweight and obesity as part of a study of diabetes in the border region. The results showed that 67.8 percent of women and 76.6 percent of men in the border area are overweight or obese.

Darryl Williams, director of the Office of Border Health at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, is one of a dedicated group of local academics and health professionals who are studying the city’s weight-related health problems and ways to address them. Williams attributes part of the obesity epidemic to the possibility that "Mexican-Americans may have a genetic predisposition." He cites the socalled "thrifty gene" theory, which holds that some groups have an inherited tendency toward weight conservation that in earlier contexts increased the chances of survival, but that in modern urban settings leads to high rates of obesity.

But cultural and other exogenous factors seem to be at least as, if not more, important. Williams notes that the average El Pasoan’s daily diet is high in whole milk, soft drinks and refined carbohydrates such as white rice and tortillas, but notably low in fruits and vegetables. Indeed, at least one study shows the city as having one of the lowest levels of fruit and vegetable consumption in the United States.

Williams also faults restaurant and fast food and what he terms "shifts in portion size…it used to be a small Coke, now it’s 48 ounces for the same amount of money." The technique, known as "value marketing," is used to increase sales by making consumers think they’re getting a bargain. Even worse, says Williams, are El Paso’s favorite all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants, where patrons inevitably "feel obliged to get their money’s worth."

Coupled with El Pasoans’ poor eating habits are what Williams and others see as the increasingly sedentary lifestyles of most of the city’s residents. In a study of childhood obesity in the region, Williams says he expected to find higher rates among children living in El Paso’s poorer neighborhoods, the colonias, since overweight and obesity are inversely related to income in most of the United States. Contrary to expectations, he found no significant differences between the colonias and better-off sectors. What did appear as significant was the age at which obesity kicked in.

"In both boys and girls, when they tracked weight and growth, it was normal up to age 7, then there was a problem with obesity. What is clear is that something happens when they go to school," he says.

Williams believes that a key factor may be the "change in activity levels at school." He notes that physical education, once emphasized in U.S. public schools, is now given lower priority. Moreover, "when kids go home, they’re not very active either. It’s all TV watching and video game playing." Especially in the colonias, says Williams, there are few parks or other facilities that promote physical activity. And with summer high temperatures in the mid-90s, air conditioning keeps many El Pasoans—adults and children alike—indoors.

Juan Carlos Zevallos, director of the Diabetes Research Center at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, cites similar factors. His recent research on childhood and adolescent obesity and diabetes on both sides of the border found that more than half of the region’s children watch three or more hours of television daily, while a quarter watch upwards of four hours. "And that’s not including Nintendo," he adds.

Aggravating the situation, particularly for adults, is the fact that El Paso, like many other cities, is largely a product of unplanned urban sprawl. Walking and biking are simply not practical ways of getting around. Moreover, "our public transportation is terrible," says Zevallos. "You need a car—you need your own car."

Zevallos and other members of El Paso’s public health community are doing more than studying the city’s obesity problem. They are working to curb the trends through health promotion efforts, some of the most promising of them aimed at children.

One of these is an obesity prevention program known as El Paso CATCH (Coordinated Approach to Child Health), based on a national program of the same acronym. Funded with $5.6 million in grants from the local Paso del Norte Health Foundation, the program promotes active lifestyles and healthy eating among schoolchildren and has been implemented in more than 100 El Paso–area elementary schools.

Karen Coleman, a specialist in childhood obesity and assistant professor of health psychology at the University of Texas at El Paso, evaluated the program and considers it a success. In its first year, CATCH managed to boost moderate-tovigorous physical activity more than 50 percent and reduce the fat content of school lunches to less than 30 percent of total calories. Now rates of overweight in El Paso CATCH schools are lower than those recently reported among Mexican-American children at the national level.

"I think dealing with it in children is the key," says Zevallos, "because one of the greatest risk factors for being an overweight adult is being an overweight adolescent. But you can’t just deal with the kids; you have to deal with the mindset of the families and the schools."

Pediatrician Jose Roman agrees. He notes that in El Paso’s schools, many cafeteria workers, teachers and administrative staff are themselves overweight or obese. They also tend to be staunch members of the "clean-plate club."

"School lunch programs are designed to get kids to eat more, not to eat healthily," says Roman. "They’re told, ‘you have to eat all your food.’ We’re pushing food on children."

Roman notes that El Paso parents tend to be even more difficult targets than schools. Most Hispanics grow up believing that fat children are healthy children, he says. "The more they eat, the better the parents feel. Parents are afraid to limit what their children eat."

Overweight or obese? Obesity is most often measured using the Body Mass Index, which is equal to a person’s weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared. A BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 is considered normal, 25 to 29.9 is overweight only, and over 30 is obese. Using BMI, an adult who is 6 feet tall and weighs 225 pounds would be considered obese, while someone 5 ft. 6 in. and 155 pounds would be just overweight. (A separate set of standards is used to measure overweight in children.) A shortcoming of BMI is that it fails to distinguish between excess fat and muscle. Bodybuilders have relatively high BMIs, for example, even when their proportion of body fat is normal. In addition, some population groups have more or less body fat at a given BMI. Australian aborigines and many Asians tend to have higher-than-healthy body fat at normal BMI measures, while Polynesians have somewhat lower body fat than other populations at the same BMI. In general, however, BMI correlates closely with more direct measures of body fat and is a strong predictor of health problems associated with obesity.

Beyond the soft touch

While prevention programs such as those in El Paso hold promise, they may not be enough to counter the fast-growing worldwide epidemic of obesity. Rigby, of the International Obesity Task Force, says the "soft approach of more education about food at school and encouraging exercise" is no longer enough. "We need to tackle the root causes with ambitious initiatives to counteract the huge changes we’ve seen in recent years."

A key target of this newer get-tough approach is the multibillion-dollar global food industry. Critics argue that the industry’s advertising, marketing and pricing practices actively promote excessive consumption of high-calorie, low-quality foods. To counter the trends, Rigby and others are urging such measures as requiring nutritional information on restaurant and fast-food menus. They also favor restrictions on advertising, particularly ads aimed at children, and using public pressure to make the food industry "part of the solution."

"In Europe, McDonald’s stopped using transfatty acids years ago because Europeans wouldn’t stand for it," says PAHO’s Jacoby. "Now, in the U.S. they’ve promised to do the same."

Others have called for placing so-called "fat" or "Twinkie" taxes on unhealthy foods and using the revenues for counter-advertising or subsidies on healthier foods. Supporters cite studies showing that people will opt for healthier foods over unhealthy ones when the price differential is significant.

Advocates are pursuing these issues at both the national and global levels, working to incorporate them, for example, into international trade talks under the auspices of the World Trade Organization. The parallels with anti-tobacco efforts are clear, but many hope the multinational food industry will be more cooperative toward such efforts than the tobacco industry has been.

"Unlike tobacco, food itself is not a poison," notes Jacoby. "It’s just a question of quality and the amount that’s consumed. So there is real potential for cooperation with industry."

Rigby agrees: "The idea of public health collaboration with the food industry isn’t really new. We’ve had iodine-enriched salt, for example, and some sectors of the food industry have espoused the idea of sending out public health messages as part of their product marketing….But a large part of the processed foods we eat today are still part of the problem and not yet part of the solution. So we are challenging the food industry to deliver truly healthy options—not just to niche markets, but to all consumers."

At least as difficult a challenge is finding ways to address the other side of the obesity equation: energy expenditure through physical activity.

"There are already too many megacities and urban environments where the car is king and it is impossible for people to get around easily on foot or bicycle," says Rigby. "We need to create physical town environments that sustain and support good health." This means incorporating the "healthy cities" approach into urban planning, promoting parks, bike paths and pedestrian malls; restraining suburban sprawl; increasing funding for public transportation; and making car use less attractive and less necessary.

Getting countries around the world to sign onto such an ambitious agenda may require a rethinking of what constitutes a higher standard of living, akin to the increasing acceptance of the idea that economic development must be socially and environmentally sustainable. "It is tempting for developing countries to believe that much of the environmental change that produces the huge public health burden of obesity is inevitable," says Rigby. "It is our job to persuade them that they can act now to steer a different course."

Donna Eberwine is editor of Perspectives in Health.

Upping the odds

Obesity significantly increases the risk of a number of health problems, some of them debilitating or even lifethreatening.

• Obese individuals have a 50–100 percent increased risk of death from all causes compared with people of normal weight. Among young adults (25- to 35-year-olds), severe obesity increases the risk of death by a factor of 12.
• Obese people have twice the risk of coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis of the knees, and gout.
• Obesity doubles the risk of breast, endometrial and colon cancer, as well as hormone abnormalities, fertility problems and fetal defects.
• The risk of diabetes and gallbladder disease is three times greater for obese people. Distribution of body fat and levels of physical activity have been shown to have their own independent impacts on health.
• Deep abdominal fat—as opposed to fat concentrated in the hips, buttocks and thighs—adds to the risk of both heart disease and diabetes.
• Physical inactivity, independent of body fat, increases the risk of diabetes, heart attacks and strokes, high blood pressure and cancers of the cervix, ovaries, vagina and colon.

Perspectives in Health Magazine

Lifestyle, diet may halt prostate cancer progression

By Dominique Patton

 

11/08/2005 - Men with early stage prostate cancer who make drastic changes to their diet and lifestyle may stop or perhaps even reverse the progression of their illness, claim US researchers.

Their study is one of the first randomized, controlled trials to demonstrate that lifestyle changes may affect the progression of a cancer.

The findings are important as prosate cancer is the second most common cancer in men after lung cancer. It was the most common form of cancer diagnosed among men in the European Union during 2004, representing 15 per cent of male cancers and 238,000 new cases, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

 

See the full story at Nutra Ingredients

Changes in lifestyle assist in permanent weight loss

 

Dr. Kathleen Baskett
HEALTHY WEIGHT

Dear Dr. Baskett: I usually can lose weight fairly easily, but I always seem to gain it back again. Sometimes I even gain more than I lost. What can I do? - Local patient

Many people are experts at losing weight, but very few are able to maintain their new weight. Diets work because they ultimately end up with a person taking in fewer calories than he or she is expending.

However, diets entail restriction and deprivation. Therefore, that manner of eating cannot be sustained long-term. A diet is something one goes off of. That's why it is important to approach weight loss from the perspective of making lifestyle changes - taking small steps and making consistent changes in habits. Even though weight loss in this manner is slower, you will likely maintain the new weight because you have made some permanent changes in lifestyle.

 

See the full story at Billings Gazette...

Coke, Pepsi, Ipsei and a looming legal dispute

05/08/2005 - Coca-Cola could face a legal challenge from arch-rival Pepsi if it succeeds in launching a new vitamin-enriched soft drink on the UK market.

The product, called Ipsei, is targeted at Europe’s growing demand for functional beverages. It contains vitamins and natural antioxidants, and is aimed at the over-30’s market.

It is already available in the Netherlands and Germany, and expansion into the UK market could see the product become a global brand. Coke has already applied for a UK trademark.

See the full story at Food Navigator Europe

Health concerns see UK soft drinks consumption fall

08/08/2005 - A new report on the UK soft drinks market reveals that the majority of UK soft drinks categories have struggled following poor summer sales in 2004.

But while this contrasts poorly with spectacular sales in the summer of 2003, the report from Zenith International says that the long-term path of soft drink growth remains steady.

UK soft drinks consumption fell 2 per cent last year to 13.7 billion litres, down from 13.9 billion litres in 2003. However, the 2004 total soft drinks still figure represents an increase of 47 per cent over the past ten years and 18 per cent since 1999.

Bottled water once again remained a growing sector, as the UK consumer continues to become aware of the health benefits associated with proper hydration. Carbonates suffered at the hands of the UK weather in 2004, yet low calorie variants continued to make share gains.

According to a separate report, the proportion of British adults drinking bottled water increased from 35 per cent in 2000 to 54 per cent in 2004.

Market research group Mintel said that more consumers were increasing their daily intake of water, either because they want to follow a healthier daily eating pattern or because they wish to maintain their fluid intake as part of a weight-reducing regime.

“Consumers also see it as a lifestyle choice, forsaking caffeine and carbonates in favour of water, which is innocent of any type of health-crime,” said Amanda Lintott, consumer analyst at Mintel.

Indeed, the Zenith report also found that the concepts of 'no added sugar' and 'added functionality' – which focus on the underlying trends of health and wellbeing – were major driving forces behind the diversification of the UK soft drinks industry.

A greater array of healthier and more functional products – notably those launched in 2003, such as Red Bull Sugarfree, Ocean Spray Light and Lucozade Sport's Hydroactive sports water – are also gaining a higher profile.

More recently, soft drinks giant Pepsi announced that it was rolling out its carbonated grapefruit drink Ting to UK consumers, underlining the fact that leading drinks firms are targeting the increasingly health conscious consumer.

In addition, the UK soft drinks industry has found itself having to respond not only to consumer demand but also to increasing national media attention and governmental pressure. The focus on rising obesity levels remains intense.

Zenith says that the 2005 UK Soft Drinks Industry Report contains all the key developments within the UK soft drinks market including market and sector overviews from 1984, market segments from 2000 to 2004, company rankings from 2003-2004, detailed tracking of the major market developments, profiles of the Top 50 companies, and forecasts to 2009.

 

Food navigator Europe

Vanuatu seaplants help anaemia patient

By Evelyne Toa - The Independent
Posted Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Many people who get sick in Vanuatu use traditional medicine or noni juice rather than go to the hospital for medical treatment, which they feel sometimes cannot cure them.

The Independent last week met a man from Imarkak village south Tanna, Sacharia Samuel, and he told his experience about illness and how eating sea vegetables (seaweed/seaplants) helped to heal him.

"I managed the Catholic cooperative, looking after the village clinic, at the same leading our youth group. Last year something happened to me. I was very, very sick, losing weight, my body weakened until staff from the Lenakel hospital decided to transfer me to VCH for further medical treatment and check-up. My father is a traditional doctor. He tried almost every traditional medicine he has on me, but couldn't help me recovering."

"VCH told me I have anaemia that has no cure, so they send me home. I left VCH and lived with relatives in Vila. One day I learned that seaplants could help heal my disease," he claimed. "So when I heard about Ms Alice Athy, in charge of a natural remedy clinic, I went to see if she could assist. That was September 2004.

"She started treating me with sea vegetables and invited me to stay with them. Since then, I have regained my weight and the strength came back to me. Now I can walk normal again. When I was sick I couldn't even hold a kitchen knife as it was too heavy," he said.

"Now that I am healed, I believe in traditional medicine, or seaplants in particular because they helped cure my disease. Now I feel good, and I am fit physically. God creates seaplants, and they can heal when used properly."

Samuel is now employed by a private security company in Vila.

According to a booklet titled "Edible and medicinal seaplants of the Pacific Islands" published in 2000, seaplants can help heal diseases.

It is a project between the Secretariat of the South Pacific Community and the University of the South Pacific under funding from Canada, and South Pacific Ocean Development Program (SPODP).

There are three main groups of seaplants: red, green and brown and are good to eat. Over 500 kinds of seaplants grow in the South Pacific region. In most countries, people eat only a few of these plants. There are many as 100 in the South Pacific region.

Why should we eat sea vegetables?

Sea vegetables are usually eaten because people like the taste. However, sea vegetables are also a good source of vitamins and minerals. They can help keep people well and protect against heart disease, diabetes and goitre. None are known to be poisonous.

Other uses for seaplants

Jellies and extracts from some seaplants can be made into body care products. They are especially good for the skin and hair. They are good for gardens and animals. Most seaplants, especially the large brown ones, can be made into fertiliser. Minerals from the seaplants pass into the soil and are picked up by the growing vegetables, so your food becomes more nutritious.

Sea vegetables as medicine

Many sea vegetables have medicinal properties beyond their nutritional value.

"For people who are at risk of developing diabetes or heart disease, or who are overweight, sea vegetables are a healthy addition to the diet. People in Japan eat more sea vegetables than other people in the world," according to the findings of the SPODP.

Sea vegetables or seaplants may help with conditions including anaemia, sight problems, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, bronchitis, burns, cuts and other wounds, cold or flu, constipation, diarrhoea, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, sore throat, stress, stroke, tumour, ulcers, urinary disorders, infections and many more.

Alice has a clinic in Port Vila, and is looking to relaunch one clinic in Santo and one in Tanna, to meet people's demands.

See the story at Port Vila Presse

Hoodia and CITES

CITES EXPANDS COVERAGE, DISCUSSES WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING, IVORY, DNA

Key decisions were made this week at the 2-14 October Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) in Bangkok, Thailand. These included decisions on a Southeast Asian initiative to combat wildlife trafficking, the regulation of a number of heavily-traded species, and cross-cutting issues. CITES is one of several multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) currently being discussed at the WTO, where Members are negotiating on the relationship between MEAs and multilateral trade rules as part of the Doha round. The 13th CITES COP provides an opportunity for parties to the agreement to review restrictions on trade in endangered species or propose new ones by listing them on CITES 'Appendices I, II, or III,' or through action plans. Animal and plant species listed under CITES Appendix I are considered highly threatened with extinction, and are excluded from trade, except in very special circumstances, while Appendix II species are subject to strictly regulated trade on the basis of quotas and permits to ensure that trade does not compromise their survival. Appendix III lists species that are subject to domestic regulation, and for which a Party requests the cooperation of other Parties to control international trade.

Thailand to lead initiative against wildlife trafficking

On 11 October, ministers and senior officials from the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) promised to join together to stop illegal trafficking in threatened species in a regional plan launched and approved by delegates at the CITES meeting. In his opening speech on 2 October to CITES delegates, Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra stressed the need for global and regional efforts to fight organised criminal activities related to international trade in wildlife. He proposed that Thailand could take the lead in forming a regional law enforcement network to combat wildlife crime, offering to host a meeting in 2005 to work out the details of establishing such a network. Conservation groups say that cross-border trafficking in wildlife is difficult to curb, owing to few or no laws, the low priority given to it by governments and poor resources and training for enforcement. Roger Lahanan, from the Asian Conservation Alliance, said that "this region badly needs such a body proposed by the Thai Prime Minster and we'll work with the government to make sure it happens as soon as possible".

CITES upgrades Hoodia, Ramin, Irrawady dolphin

South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana were successful in their proposal to list Hoodia, a medicinal plant long used by Africa's San people for its appetite-suppressing qualities, in Appendix II (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 23 September 2004). In addition, Indonesia's proposal to uplist the Ramin tree from Appendix III to II was passed by the COP. The ramin tree has long been one of Southeast Asia's major export timbers, and Indonesia emphasised that the Appendix II listing would ensure better enforcement of conservation measures and benefit orangutan populations. In addition, the Irrawaddy dolphin was transferred from Appendix II to I despite opposition from Japan, Norway, and Gabon. The great white shark and humphead wrasse were added to Appendix II. However, Indonesia's proposal, supported by the EU, to include the agarwood tree and all its parts and derivatives in Appendix II was sent to a working group following opposition from the US. Delegates later approved a decision to convene a capacity-building workshop on trade in agarwood prior to CITES COP-14.

ICTSD Reporting; "Proposal for Wildlife Interpol Gets Support," TERRAVIVA, 4 October 2004; ENB, Vol. 21 No. 35-42, 3 October 2004; "CITES authorizes 2004 export quotas for Caspian Sea caviar," CITES, 8 October 2004; "ASEAN Unveil Proposal To Curb Wildlife Trafficking," AP, 12 October 2004; "Japan loses bid to loosen trade in whale products," REUTERS, 12 October 2004.

Amendments to Appendices I and II of CITES - Inclussion of Hoodia

Original Document on the Net

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CoP13 Prop. xxx

CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN ENDANGERED SPECIES

OF WILD FAUNA AND FLORA

Amendments to Appendices I and II of CITES

Thirteenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties

Bangkok, Thailand, 2-14 October 2004

A. PROPOSAL

Inclusion of Hoodia species in Appendix II, designating all parts and derivatives except those

bearing the label "Produced from Hoodia spp. material obtained through controlled

harvesting and production in collaboration with the CITES Management Authorities of

Botswana/Namibia/South Africa under agreement no. BW/NA/ZA xxxxxx)"

B. Proponents

Botswana, Namibia, South Africa

C. SUPPORTING STATEMENT

1. Taxonomy

1.1. Class: Magnoliopsida

1.2. Order: Gentianales

1.3. Family: Apocynaceae

1.4. Genus:Hoodia Sweet ex Decne.

1.5. Scientific synonyms: Gonostemon Haw.; Trichocaulon N.E.Br.

1.6. Common names: (South Africa) Ghaap, Bitter Ghaap, (Namibia) Hoodia, goa.-I, khoba.b,

khowa.b, goai-I, khoba, khoba.bs, khobab, khowab, goab, otjinove, !nawa#kharab

1.7. Trade names and pharmaceutical names: P57 (active ingredient)

2. Biological parameters

2.1. Distribution

Hoodia occur in summer rainfall areas in Angola, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, as

well as winter rainfall areas in Namibia (MET 2002). All taxa except one are found west of

26° longitude from 33° degrees south to as far north as Angola. The only exception is H.

currorii subsp. lugardii, which occurs in Botswana and the Limpopo province of South Africa.

The centres of diversity are in Namibia (11 taxa) and South Africa (9 taxa) (see table below).

2.2. Habitat availability

Species of the genus occur in a wide variety of arid habitats from coastal to mountainous, but

typically on arid gravel or shale plains and slopes and ridges. The precise habitat

requirements for Hoodia are not known, but habitat availability is not expected to be a limiting

factor.

2

2.3. Population status

Several species occur in very large populations over large areas (several more than

10,000 km2). This includes H. gordonii, which is the species currently most sought after for

trade in weight reduction products. There are, however, other closely related species that

are less prolific, occurring in isolated patches with an overall low density, and a relatively

small distribution range (less than 1,000 km2). A relatively common feature is that most

species have patchy distributions. The conservation risk classification for species that have

been assessed using the IUCN 2001 criteria are given in the table below (as in the 1997 Red

List and separate updates for the species that have been assessed using the IUCN’s 2001

criteria). Ten of the 16 taxa assessed have been classified as threatened in the latest Red

Data assessments for those taxa.

TAXON NAME STATUS

1997

STATUS

2002

Hoodia alstonii

(N.E.Br.) Plowes nt

H. currorii

(Hook.) Decne. subsp. lugardii (N.E.Br.) Bruyns nt

H. dregei

N.E.Br. R

H. flava

(N.E.Br.) Plowes nt

H. gordonii

(Masson) Sweet ex Decne. nt

H. juttae

Dinter R VU

H. officinalis

(N.E.Br.) Plowes subsp. delaetiana (Dinter)

Bruyns R VU

H. officinalis

(N.E.Br.) Plowes subsp. Officinalis nt

H.pilifera

(L.f.) Plowes subsp. annulata (N.E.Br.) Bruyns R

H. pilifera

(L.f.) Plowes subsp. Pilifera R

H. pilifera

(L.f.) Plowes subsp. pillansii (N.E.Br.) Bruyns V

H. ruschii

Dinter I VU

H. triebneri

(Nel) Bruyns R VU

2.4. Population trends

Little is known about population trends at population level, although declines in several sites

are known as the result of mining, infrastructure development and agriculture. For example,

the population of Hoodia pilifera subsp. pillansii, which is on the Red Data list, is severely

fragmented with no population thought to contain more than 250 individuals (Archer and

Victor, 2003). Several localities of H. currorii subsp. lugardi in Botswana have been lost to

the combined effects of diamond mining and attack by a snout beetle (Setshogo and

Hargreaves 2002). There are also reports of intensive bioprospecting for commercial

exploitation in Botswana (Setshogo and Hargreaves 2002), as well as reports of collecting or

solicitation of collecting in Namibia, and South Africa.

2.5. Geographic trends

There are reports that Hoodia species have disappeared from parts of their range due to

mining activities, agriculture and collecting.

2.6. Role of the species in the ecosystem

Hoodias are part of the succulent flora in southern Africa, and are a minor source of food and

moisture to a range of wildlife species in arid ecosystems. Hoodia species (analogous to

stemmed cacti and euphorbias) are perennial, slow growing, spiny, and form multiple

aboveground stem clusters, which provide shelter or breeding sites for small animals.

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2.7. Threats

All Hoodias have been subject to collecting by succulent collectors, and several taxa have

been impacted by habitat disturbance (e.g. road construction, mining and overgrazing).

Harvesting for medicinal properties has occurred in the past as part of traditional practices,

but harvesting for commercial purposes is becoming a large potential threat. Since the

isolation of the active ingredient in H. gordonii and the extensive press coverage that

projected huge financial benefits to be derived from exploiting this species, there has been

an increasing interest in the harvest of Hoodia spp. Although H. gordonii is abundant and

widespread, collectors of plant material cannot always tell the different species apart, and

collecting from the wild is likely to impact a number of Hoodia species. Harvesting requires

cutting off the above ground parts of the plant and it is relatively easy to decimate small

populations.

3. Utilization and trade

3.1 National utilization

Hoodia

spp. are widely used traditionally by the San people as an appetite suppressant,

thirst quencher and as a cure for severe abdominal cramps, haemorrhoids, tuberculosis,

indigestion, hypertension and diabetes. Various uses have been recorded among Anikhwe

(northern Botswana), Hei//om (northern Namibia), Khomani (north western South Africa), and

the !Xun and Khwe (Khoe) (originally from Angola) communities. Less is known about the

use of these plants by other indigenous people, but some records show limited use of plant

parts as food items, albeit not as preferred food items. Hoodias are known to be used for

cultural purposes in some areas (Hargreaves and Turner, 2002). Although relatively difficult

to cultivate, Hoodias are attractive plants and are used for horticultural purposes.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa isolated an active

compound (P57) for appetite suppression from H. gordonii. The CSIR licensed the rights for

further development of P57 and the setting up of a sustainable production system to

Phytopharm in the UK. Phytopharm in turn sub-licensed the rights to Pfizer for the

development and global commercialisation, but Pfizer has recently returned the clinical

developmental rights. In terms of a benefit sharing agreement with the CSIR, all the San

communities in the range States will benefit from the development of P57.

3.2 Legal international trade

Botswana: Harvesting for export has been permitted in some instances. This requires a

permit and the area where harvesting is taking place is inspected by officers from the

Agricultural Resources Board. One exporter reported exporting 2500kg/month.

Namibia: Exports have thus far been limited to herbarium collections. Manufactured

pharmaceutical preparations for dieting and appetite suppression have appeared in the

Namibian market, presumably as plant extracts from South African origin. Considerable

potential exists for promoting sustainable legal trade in co-operation with responsible

pharmaceutical companies. Negotiations are already under way in this regard, and Namibia

intends to establish a controlled harvesting system in co-operation with specific

manufacturing companies that make commitments to support conservation and use only

material obtained through controlled harvesting or other forms of production.

South Africa: In trying to expand the development of Hoodia products, a limited amount of

wild collected material was supplied to developing companies (permits issued by Northern

Cape Nature Conservation and Western Cape Nature Conservation). There is a limited

amount of trade in cultivated material. Permits have been issued to projects linked to the

4

CSIR since 1998 (80 plants in 1998, 200 plants in 2000, 1350kg from cultivated sources in

2001, and 1900kg from cultivated sources in 2002)

3.3. Illegal trade

The extent of illegal trade is unknown. Illegal exports have been reported from Botswana for

the extraction of the active ingredient in manufacturing appetite suppressants by Biomed

(Anonymous, 2003, Hargreaves and Turner, 2002). Namibia has experienced attempts at

illegal trade (solicitation by a North American company to individuals to supply material after

being informed that exports will not be authorized). There is also illegal collecting in South

Africa. A North American company claims to be importing 1,200 to 2,800 kg of dried Hoodia

plants per week, but the source of this material is not known and it is assumed to be illegal.

Limited illegal collection by succulent enthusiasts also occurs throughout the region.

3.4. Actual or potential impacts of trade

The potential impact of illegal trade is considered to be very high because of the threat of

over-exploitation after the patenting of compound P57 by the CSIR, in South Africa. Hoodia

products are widely advertised on websites and all the material used to manufacture these

products is thought to be derived from wild-harvested plants. There are at least ten

companies offering Hoodia products for sale on their websites. Very high actual and

potential impacts of trade can be expected, since some pharmaceutical companies require

wild material for extraction of the active compound.

3.5. Captive breeding or artificial propagation for commercial purposes

Cultivation trials have been set up in South Africa and Namibia. Pfizer is also reported to

have cloned Hoodia from cell cultures and there are also reports of cultivation in Chile

(Hargreaves and Turner, 2002). The plantings in South Africa and Namibia have not yet

reached a stage where harvesting is possible, so all material currently in trade is probably

from wild sources.

4. Conservation and Management

4.1. Legal status

4.1.1. National:

Botswana: Harvesting is controlled by the Agricultural Resources Conservation Act [CAP.

35:06]. Regulations for harvesting of veld products were published on 26 March 2004.

Namibia: All Hoodia species are protected species, requiring prior authorization for

harvesting and trade.

South Africa: Hoodia species are protected species in the Northern Cape (Environmental

Conservation Ordinance No.19 of 1974). No collecting is allowed without a permit. Similarly,

a permit is required for any cultivation, transport or export from the province. Similar

regulations are applied in the Western Cape and Free State provinces

4.1.2. International:

None.

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4.2. Species management

4.2.1. Population monitoring

In Botswana Hoodia currori has so far not been commercially exploited to avoid overexploitation.

Hoodia currori

grows in a belt extending for 600 km east to west along the

Limpopo River through Namibia. It has been included in the Southern African Plant Red

Data List and was presented to the Agricultural Resources Board to be covered by the

legislation currently protecting the grapple plant (Lloyd, 2003).

Namibia is in the process of expanding monitoring of these species as part of a long-term

plant conservation programme in Southern Namibia, i.e. establishing reference sites.

Funding is, however, a major constraint.

4.2.2. Habitat conservation

In Namibia, the status of all species has been assessed since 2001 (Craven & Loots 2002,

Loots in press).

Hoodia gordonii

is found in the areas of the central Kalahari and Makgadikgadi national

parks, (Lloyd, 2003), Tanqua Karoo National Park (Strauss et al, 2003) and the Ai-

Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park (Peace Park Foundation, 2003) in South Africa. It, and

other species, is also present in Namib Naukluft Park, (World Conservation Monitoring

Centre, 2000), Skeleton Coast Park, and a new national park in southern Namibia (the

former Sperrgebiet), as well as in several conservancies.

4.2.3. Management measures

In Namibia, harvesting is currently not authorized. Habitat protection is achieved through the

protected area network and the mitigation of habitat disturbance through environmental

impact assessment procedures and environmental contracts.

4.3. Control measures

4.3.1. International trade:

Hoodias

offer considerable economic potential to range States, and in particular also to

indigenous people such as the San who first discovered the pharmaceutical value of these

species. Inclusion of this genus in Appendix II is needed to establish a standardized

international trading framework and monitoring regime. The proponents intend to promote

local processing, and the major form of exports is likely to be in the form of extracts, partially

processed or finished pharmaceutical products. Such products present complications for

enforcement, and have traditionally been exempted for medicinal plant species included in

Appendix II. It is therefore proposed to only exempt such products bearing a label indicating

that the specific manufacturer/distributor/agent responsible for marketing such product has

established an agreement with the relevant Management Authority, as specified in the

proposal (Section A). All other specimens and raw material would remain subject to the

requirements of trade under Article IV.

4.3.2. Domestic measures

In Botswana, Hoodia spp are protected by the Agricultural Resources Conservation Act, in

which Hoodia is listed as a veld product.

In Namibia, all Hoodia species are protected and prior authorization is required for harvesting

or trade. No wild harvesting has yet been authorized until a status review has been

completed.

In South Africa, Hoodia species are protected species in the Northern Cape (Environmental

Conservation Ordinance No.19 of 1974). No collecting is allowed without a permit. Similarly,

a permit is required for any cultivation, transport or export from the province. The same

regulations are applied in the Western Cape and Free State provinces.

5. Information on Similar species

Hoodia species may be confused with one another and have also been confused with some

cacti species, like Trichocerus spachianus (a declared noxious weed in South Africa) (Lloyd,

2003).

6. References

Anonymous. 2003. People warned against exporting medicinal plant. Available online:

www.wag.co.za/News/SeptDec/people_warned_against_exporting.htm. 11 September 2003

Archer, R.H and Victor, J. E. 2003. Hoodia pilfera subsp. pillansii. Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 20

(4): 219-224.

Craven, P. and Loots, S. 2002. Namibia. In: J.S. Golding (ed.) Southern African Plant Red Data

Lists. Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report. No. 14: 61-92. SABONET,

Pretoria.

Hargreaves, B. J and Turner, Q. 2002. Uses and misuses of Hoodia. Asklepios 86, 11-16.

Lloyd, S. 2003. Plant poachers get noxious weed instead of rare African species! IUCN, Gland.

Available online: http://indaba.iucn.org/archives/aliens-l/2003-09/00004527.htm

Loots, S. In press. A red Data Book of Namibian Plants. Southern African Botanical Diversity

Network Report. SABONET, Pretoria.

MET 2002. Distribution, species composition and uses of Hoodia. Directorate of Scientific

Services, Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Namibia (internal report).

Peace Parks Foundation. 2003. Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Conservation Park. Available online:

http://www.peaceparks.org/contect/interactive/story.

Setshogo, M.P. and Hargreaves, B. 2002. Botswana. In: J. Golding (ed) Southern African Plant

Red Data Lists. Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 14, SABONET, Pretoria.

Strauss, C, Spottiswoode, C and Cohen, C. 2003. Tanqua Karoo National Park. Strategic

management plan: Also available online http://www.parkssa.

co.za/parks/TankwaKaroo/default.html

Victor, J. E, Bredenkamp, C. L, Venter, H. J. T, Bruyns, P. V and Nicholas, A. 2000. Apocynaceae.

In O. A. Leistner (ed.), Seed plants of southern Africa: families and genera. Strelitzia 10:71-

98.

World Conservation Monitoring Centre. 2000. Namib-Naukluft Park Information. Available online:

www.wcmc.org.uk/protected_areas/data/sample/0196p.htm

Hoodia and CITES - How CITES work?

How CITES works
 

CITES works by subjecting international trade in specimens of selected species to certain controls. All import, export, re-export and introduction from the sea of species covered by the Convention has to be authorized through a licensing system. Each Party to the Convention must designate one or more Management Authorities in charge of administering that licensing system and one or more Scientific Authorities to advise them on the effects of trade on the status of the species.

The species covered by CITES are listed in three Appendices, according to the degree of protection they need. (For additional information on the number and type of species covered by the Convention click here.)

Appendices I and II

• Appendix I includes species threatened with extinction. Trade in specimens of these species is permitted only in exceptional circumstances.
  
  
• Appendix II includes species not necessarily threatened with extinction, but in which trade must be controlled in order to avoid utilization incompatible with their survival. HOODIA IS INTO THIS CATEGORY.

  The Conference of the Parties (CoP), which is the supreme decision-making body of the Convention and comprises all its member States, has agreed in Resolution Conf. 9.24 (Rev. CoP13) on a set of biological and trade criteria to help determine whether a species should be included in Appendices I or II. At each regular meeting of the CoP, Parties submit proposals based on those criteria to amend these two Appendices. Those amendment proposals are discussed and then submitted to a vote. The Convention also allows for amendments by a postal procedure between meetings of the CoP (see Article XV, paragraph 2, of the Convention), but this procedure is rarely used.
  
  Appendix III

  This Appendix contains species that are protected in at least one country, which has asked other CITES Parties for assistance in controlling the trade. Changes to Appendix III follow a distinct procedure from changes to Appendices I and II, as each Party’s is entitled to make unilateral amendments to it.

A specimen of a CITES-listed species may be imported into or exported (or re-exported) from a State party to the Convention only if the appropriate document has been obtained and presented for clearance at the port of entry or exit. There is some variation of the requirements from one country to another and it is always necessary to check on the national laws that may be stricter, but the basic conditions that apply for Appendices I and II are described below.

Appendix-I specimens

1. An import permit issued by the Management Authority of the State of import is required. This may be issued only if the specimen is not to be used for primarily commercial purposes and if the import will be for purposes that are not detrimental to the survival of the species. In the case of a live animal or plant, the Scientific Authority must be satisfied that the proposed recipient is suitably equipped to house and care for it.
   
   
2. An export permit or re-export certificate issued by the Management Authority of the State of export or re-export is also required.

   An export permit may be issued only if the specimen was legally obtained; the trade will not be detrimental to the survival of the species; and an import permit has already been issued.

   A re-export certificate may be issued only if the specimen was imported in accordance with the provisions of the Convention and, in the case of a live animal or plant, if an import permit has been issued.

   In the case of a live animal or plant, it must be prepared and shipped to minimize any risk of injury, damage to health or cruel treatment.

Appendix-II specimens

1. An export permit or re-export certificate issued by the Management Authority of the State of export or re-export is required.
   
   An export permit may be issued only if the specimen was legally obtained and if the export will not be detrimental to the survival of the species.
   
   A re-export certificate may be issued only if the specimen was imported in accordance with the Convention.
   
   
2. In the case of a live animal or plant, it must be prepared and shipped to minimize any risk of injury, damage to health or cruel treatment.
   
   
3. No import permit is needed unless required by national law.

In the case of specimens introduced from the sea, a certificate has to be issued by the Management Authority of the State into which the specimens are being brought, for species listed in Appendix I or II. For further information, see the text of the Convention, Article III, paragraph 5 and Article IV, paragraph 6.

Appendix-III specimens

1. In the case of trade from a State that included the species in Appendix III, an export permit issued by the Management Authority of that State is required. This may be issued only if the specimen was legally obtained and, in the case of a live animal or plant, if it will be prepared and shipped to minimize any risk of injury, damage to health or cruel treatment.
   
   
2. In the case of export from any other State, a certificate of origin issued by its Management Authority is required.
   
   
3. In the case of re-export, a re-export certificate issued by the State of re-export is required

In its Article VII, the Convention allows or requires Parties to make certain exceptions to the general principles described above, notably in the following cases:

• for specimens in transit or being transhipped [see also Resolution Conf. 9.7 (Rev. CoP13)];
• for specimens that were acquired before CITES provisions applied to them (known as pre-Convention specimens, see also Resolution Conf. 13.6);
• for specimens that are personal or household effects ([see also Resolution Conf. 13.7);
• for animals that were ‘bred in captivity’ [see Resolution Conf. 10.16 (Rev.)];
• for plants that were ‘artificially propagated’ [see Resolution Conf. 11.11 (Rev. CoP13)];
• for specimens that are destined for scientific research;
• for animals or plants forming part of a travelling collection or exhibition, such as a circus.

There are special rules in these cases and a permit or certificate will generally still be required. Anyone planning to import or export/re-export specimens of a CITES species should contact the national CITES Management Authorities of the countries of import and export/re-export for information on the rules that apply.

When a specimen of a CITES-listed species is transferred between a country that is a Party to CITES and a country that is not, the country that is a Party may accept documentation equivalent to the permits and certificates described above.

On the Net

Hoodia and CITES

What is CITES?   CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement between Governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. Widespread information nowadays about the endangered status of many prominent species, such as the tiger and elephants, might make the need for such a convention seem obvious. But at the time when the ideas for CITES were first formed, in the 1960s, international discussion of the regulation of wildlife trade for conservation purposes was something relatively new. With hindsight, the need for CITES is clear. Annually, international wildlife trade is estimated to be worth billions of dollars and to include hundreds of millions of plant and animal specimens. The trade is diverse, ranging from live animals and plants to a vast array of wildlife products derived from them, including food products, exotic leather goods, wooden musical instruments, timber, tourist curios and medicines. Levels of exploitation of some animal and plant species are high and the trade in them, together with other factors, such as habitat loss, is capable of heavily depleting their populations and even bringing some species close to extinction. Many wildlife species in trade are not endangered, but the existence of an agreement to ensure the sustainability of the trade is important in order to safeguard these resources for the future. Because the trade in wild animals and plants crosses borders between countries, the effort to regulate it requires international cooperation to safeguard certain species from over-exploitation. CITES was conceived in the spirit of such cooperation. Today, it accords varying degrees of protection to more than 30,000 species of animals and plants, whether they are traded as live specimens, fur coats or dried herbs. CITES was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of IUCN (The World Conservation Union). The text of the Convention was finally agreed at a meeting of representatives of 80 countries in Washington DC., United States of America, on 3 March 1973, and on 1 July 1975 CITES entered in force. CITES is an international agreement to which States (countries) adhere voluntarily. States that have agreed to be bound by the Convention ('joined' CITES) are known as Parties. Although CITES is legally binding on the Parties – in other words they have to implement the Convention – it does not take the place of national laws. Rather it provides a framework to be respected by each Party, which has to adopt its own domestic legislation to ensure that CITES is implemented at the national level. For many years CITES has been among the conservation agreements with the largest membership, with now 168 Parties.

On the Net

Hoodia Gordonii Review

Hoodia Latina Aloetrade Hoodia Gordonii Information and News Hoodia Latina Welcom Frequent Asked Questions on Hoodia Aloe-Sabila Blog Hoodia Latina Aloetrade Hoodia Diet Pills Hoodia is the Solution to Weight Loss Newsletter Archives Hoodia Diet BBC Diet Plan Diet Recipe Aloe Noni Aloe Vera Noni Juices CBS NBC Links 60 Minutes Hoodia Gordonii Abs Diet African Hoodia South Beach Diet Appetite Free Diet Hoodia Suppressant Diet Pill Kalahari Cactus African Cactus Atkins Diet HGH Buy Hoodia Hoodia Gordonii Diabetic Diet Diet And Nutrition Diet Drug Diet Pill Does Hoodia Work Gardoni Gordoni Godonii Hoodia Gordonni Hoodia Hoodia 500 Hoodia 57 Hoodia 60 Minutes Hoodia Alerts Hoodia Warning Hoodia Consumer Alert H57 P57 Hoodia And Review Hoodia Cactus cholesterol chia fat blaster plus hoodia super slim 400 hoodia diet extra

Hoodia Warning

Hoodia Latina Aloetrade Hoodia Gordonii Information and News Hoodia Latina Welcom Frequent Asked Questions on Hoodia Aloe-Sabila Blog Hoodia Latina Aloetrade Hoodia Diet Pills Hoodia is the Solution to Weight Loss Newsletter Archives Hoodia Diet BBC Diet Plan Diet Recipe Aloe Noni Aloe Vera Noni Juices CBS NBC Links 60 Minutes Hoodia Gordonii Abs Diet African Hoodia South Beach Diet Appetite Free Diet Hoodia Suppressant Diet Pill Kalahari Cactus African Cactus Atkins Diet HGH Buy Hoodia Hoodia Gordonii Diabetic Diet Diet And Nutrition Diet Drug Diet Pill Does Hoodia Work Gardoni Gordoni Godonii Hoodia Gordonni Hoodia Hoodia 500 Hoodia 57 Hoodia 60 Minutes Hoodia Alerts Hoodia Warning Hoodia Consumer Alert H57 P57 Hoodia And Review Hoodia Cactus cholesterol chia fat blaster plus hoodia super slim 400 hoodia diet extra

HOODIA ON THE NEWS - Hoodia Cactus

HEALTH NEWS — A new diet pill made from an African cactus is getting a lot of attention because those who've tried it say it takes away your hunger.
South African San Bushmen who live in the Kalihari dessert drink hoodia cactus juice to survive when food is not available. Now manufacturers are harvesting the cactus' appetite-suppressing properties.
Studies done by the manufacturer show hoodia pills don't cause the typical side effects of other diet drugs such as jitteriness.
ABC.com

HOODIA ON THE NEWS - Desert Diet

Friday, 30 May, 2003, 09:56 GMT 10:56 UK

Desert Diet Ancient Tribal Remedy Could Be Next Big Appetite Suppressant Drug to Fight Obesity

By Matthew McGarry LONDON, Aug. 7 -

A wild plant used by generations of native Bushmen in South Africa's Kalahari Desert to help them avoid starvation in the dry, hot sands could make them millionaires if it is successfully developed into a weight-loss dietary supplement drug for Westerners.

"I learned how to eat Hoodia Gordonii cactus from my forefathers," said one member of the San tribe, a people who live in the Kalahari Desert, as he prepared a piece of the cactus-like hoodia gordonii by trimming off the prickly spikes. "It is my food, my water, and also a dietary medicine for me." According to San spokesman Andries Steenkamp, his people ate the hoodia cactus plant for thousands of years in order to ward off hunger pains and to quench their thirst during lean times and when they were forced to survive during long hunting trips. "Hoodia acts as a appetite suppressant and also treats sickness," Steenkamp told ABCNEWS. "We, San, use the hoodia cactus plant during hunting to fight off the pain of hunger and thirst."

Pfizer Developing Key Ingredient
Now drug firms are tapping into the San knowledge, and are hoping to make a fortune by developing the hoodia cactus plant into a miracle weight loss dietary supplement pill for millions of overweight Americans and Europeans. One of those firms is Pfizer, the U.S. pharmaceutical giant responsible for Viagra. It has invested as much as $21 million for the rights to develop and license the active ingredient of hoodia, called P-57. Obesity is a growing problem in Western countries, where 100 million people are dangerously overweight. Doctors say excessive weight gain causes a myriad of medical problems including heart disease, diabetes, cancer and the onset of strokes.

P-57 works by mimicking the effect that glucose has on nerve cells in the brain — in effect fooling the body into thinking it is full, even when it is not, thus acts as an appetite suppressant. Clinical trials in the United Kingdom suggest P-57 would allow persons to naturally lose weight fast by reducing appetite by up to 2,000 calories a day, making it a potential runaway success in the multimillion-dollar quick weight loss dieting industry. Developers of P-57 hope to see it available as a prescription natural weight loss drug by 2007, after further clinical trials.

The irony that some of the world's most overfed people may benefit from some of the hungriest was not lost on the San.

"At first people here were a bit shocked," said Nigel Crawhall, a professor at the South African San Institute and a campaigner for the rights of indigenous tribes. "Why would anybody want to lose weight by eating the hoodia cactus plant? Because it's meant for when you're traveling across the desert and you don't have enough to eat. So we thought it was a bit weird."

Promised a Cut in Profits
A tribe of hunter-gatherers whose 20,000-year-old culture was recently close to extinction, the San people could now have found the ultimate survival weapon in their reliance on hoodia. Pfizer has promised them a cut of the royalties. But the chance to share in the proceeds of a revolutionary new hoodia diet pill or drug didn't come without a fight. Roger Chennells, a lawyer who in 1999 helped the San win back a large portion of their ancestral homelands in South Africa, decided to challenge the drug firms and the South African research institute that originally took out the hoodia patent in 1996. After a prolonged battle an agreement was finally reached earlier this year. "There was a certain amount of mistrust because it was a significant amount of money and each side had a lot to lose," said Chennells. "But after a fight, both parties were satisfied." Now the San will help to cultivate the plant and should the hoodia diet pill or drug come to market, their impoverished community of an estimated 100,000 people scattered across the Kalahari Desert stands to gain millions of dollars annually, plus jobs and scholarships.

Dreams of Riches But first the natural weight loss drug must be proven to work and then it must be declared safe to use by government medical boards. Crawhall said the mood is one of anxious anticipation. "There are lots of promises, and lots of excitement, but people have seen promises before and they don't always deliver, so there's also a bit of caution," he said. "People can't help but wondering if this is really going to happen or not." In the meantime, the needy San people continue to hang on to life in the harsh and unforgiving Kalahari Desert, comforted by dreams of future riches and how they will spend all that money.

HOODIA ON THE NEWS - Reaping New Meds From Old Cures

By Megan Lindow

02:00 AM Nov. 08, 2003 PT

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Samson Mvubu's corner of the bustling Faraday Market is crammed with bundles of bark, roots, bulbs and animal parts used to treat all manner of maladies, ranging from madness to coughs and infections.

Mvubu is an "inyanga" -- a traditional herbalist. He spent years learning to treat illnesses using plants found in the fields and forests surrounding his village. Visitors to this market located underneath an urban freeway come to Mvubu for cures from the countryside. Among them are a small but growing number of scientists, who show up armed with notebooks and ask lots of questions.

"The traders here are not happy about them," he says of the scientists. "They just run away with our plants under their arm and they don't come back."

Five years ago, few scientists bothered to visit Mvubu and his fellow healers. Now, however, it seems the world is waking up to the vast untapped potential of biological and indigenous resources. Bioprospecting -- searching nature for plants and animals with commercially useful properties -- is a booming field. Traditional healers like Mvubu, who tend to come from poor, marginalized communities, increasingly are perceived as the ones who might lead scientists to important discoveries.

"Everyone wants access to biodiversity," says Dr. Marthinus Horak, manager of bioprospecting at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, or CSIR, which is sponsored by the South African government.

Indeed, 50 miles away in CSIR laboratories, scientists pore over many of these same substances used by Mvubu and his colleagues, looking to isolate genes and compounds to form the basis of new drugs for obesity, HIV/AIDS, cancer, respiratory ailments and other diseases.

With 24,000 plant species, the biodiversity of this country is almost unparalleled. And with almost 300,000 traditional healers nationwide, local knowledge of plants and their uses is equally abundant. Increasingly, CSIR scientists tap into the knowledge of traditional healers, who have helped to identify hundreds of the plants researchers are studying now.

However, in South Africa -- where at least 70 percent of people rely on traditional remedies, and where newspapers run stories of AIDS patients who swear by "miracle" herbal concoctions -- no major drug has yet been developed.

Dr. Namrita Lall, a botanist at the University of Pretoria, is one of many hoping to change that. Working with a traditional healer, she has found what could be a promising alternative treatment for tuberculosis. She started with the premise that healers used certain plants to treat chest ailments, and wondered if they might be treating cases of TB without even knowing it. When she approached traditional healers and explained what she was trying to do, she says, only one man was willing to help.

"He said I had picked a very difficult thing," she recalls. "He said he sends his patients to the doctor with TB."

Nevertheless, Lall bought samples from the healer's shop and took them back to her laboratory to study. She tested 20 different plants, exposing their extracts to TB bacteria. Eventually, one of the compounds was shown to work on TB-infected mice. Now, she says, the treatment is in the pretrial stage.

The potential rewards of this type of cooperation are great for both scientists and traditional healers, Horak says. But collaboration also raises troubling issues.

Operating in a legal vacuum, researchers and corporations historically have laid claim to indigenous resources without compensating communities or obtaining their consent. Long before issues of traditional knowledge emerged for debate in global arenas like the World Trade
Organization, colonial botanists cataloged vast amounts of traditional knowledge, which is now available to anyone, says Rachel Wynberg, a Cape Town researcher on biodiversity issues.

Even now, rich countries have resisted demands from the developing world that traditional knowledge be recognized under international patent laws. And while the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity recognizes the need for stronger regulatory mechanisms, many developing countries rich in biodiversity have yet to pass their own laws protecting biological and indigenous resources.

Meanwhile, Mvubu at the Faraday Market says he has stopped speaking to scientists because he mistrusts their motives.

In a major breakthrough earlier this year, however, CSIR announced an agreement with the San of the Kalahari Desert to share in the profits of a potential blockbuster weight-loss drug.
In 1996, CSIR scientists discovered and patented appetite-suppressing chemicals found in the succulent desert plant hoodia. For untold years, the San chewed on hoodia to relieve hunger during long hunting trips.

With hoodia, scientists hoped to "put South Africa on the map as a supplier of international drugs," Horak says. The CSIR licensed P57 -- the plant's appetite-suppressing ingredient -- to a British company, Phytopharm, which in turn licensed pharmacological giant Pfizer to further develop and market the drug. When the South African San Council, an indigenous-rights group, got wind of the deal, it fought for the San to share in profits from the drug -- since it was their knowledge that led scientists to the discovery in the first place.

The case sparked an international scandal, but Horak insists that CSIR always intended to recognize the San's contribution.

"We've proven the potential for bioprospecting to translate into benefits to communities," Horak says.

Just how much the San will benefit financially remains to be seen, however. Pfizer recently pulled out of the deal, and any drug that may yet be developed from hoodia is still years away.
Wynberg says she doubts the San or any other indigenous groups ever will see much benefit from bioprospecting, given the projects' complexity.

"Even if hoodia does succeed, it's unique," she says. "One in 10,000 projects may yield some kind of promising lead ... so maybe in South Africa there will be one other."

Wired News

HOODIA ON THE NEWS - The answer to obesity in the West?

Sun, 2 Mar 2003
SAHM VENTER AND IAN JOHNSTON

"IT IS my food, my water and my medicine," said Kalahari bushman Hans Kortman, fondly describing the cactus he was chewing.

But the apparently nondescript plant has two properties Kortman failed to mention. It promises to provide the pharmaceutical industry with its Holy Grail - a safe, natural cure for obesity - and to make him and the other bushmen of the Kalahari very wealthy indeed.

In a landmark deal, due to be signed in a matter of days, the San tribe of southern Africa are to become the first indigenous people to be awarded intellectual property rights over a drug whose medicinal properties they first recognised. They very nearly missed out on any payment at all.

For thousands of years the San tribe have eked out a meagre living in the Kalahari. The medicinal uses of the hoodia cactus have been handed down from generation to generation; its capacity to stave off hunger and thirst has proved invaluable to the San hunters who have to spend days without food or water while searching for their quarry on the Kalahari’s arid planes.

The potential of the plant as a cure for obesity was recognised by the British firm Phytopharm, which patented the plant’s appetite-suppressant drug (P57) and sold the rights to the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, the owner of the impotence drug Viagra, for £13m. However, Phytopharm, based in Cambridge, initially cut the San tribe - who number around 100,000 in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Angola - out of the deal, mistakenly claiming that they had died out.

Now, after two years of legal wrangling, all the parties have finally agreed a deal which will recognise the San people’s ancient knowledge of the hoodia’s properties. Once it is signed, the agreement will represent a milestone in the long-running controversy that has surrounded the commercial exploitation of medicinal plants that have been used by indigenous tribes since pre-history.

The exact amount the San will receive has still to be decided, but there has already been talk of a payment of just over £6m a year in recognition of their traditional knowledge. If P57 proves commercially viable, it will prove hugely lucrative for drugs companies. The market for slimming aids in the US alone is already worth £6bn, and rates of obesity in the West are rising fast.

Petrus Vaalbooi, 58, chairman of the San Council, is overjoyed that a deal has finally been struck. "I feel proud that this can mean something for our community," he said.

The San people’s roots in southern Africa go back 150,000 years. They are recognised as the world’s oldest indigenous culture. It is almost a miracle that they still exist after hundreds of years of persecution. They were captured as slaves, ravaged by European diseases, shot by Boer farmers - who regarded them as vermin - on organised hunts as recently as the beginning of the 20th century, and forcibly removed from their land under apartheid. Repeated abuses left them living in poverty with a high incidence of alcoholism.

But after the fall of the apartheid regime, then South African president Nelson Mandela moved quickly to return a large tract of land to the San, and this has helped spark a revival of their culture. Nevertheless, many of the former hunter-gatherers are still reliant on subsistence farming and making craftwork for tourists.

When the newly enfranchised San discovered two years ago that not only had an arrangement to exploit hoodia been made without them, but that it was suggested that they were extinct, they instructed lawyers to investigate.

"Our knowledge was taken to make money for other people," said Vaalbooi.

Months of negotiation followed between the San and South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), finally resulting in the royalty deal.

The CSIR and Phytopharm have started a plantation at a secret location in the Northern Cape province to conduct further research on hoodia, which can only be grown in desert conditions, with a view to mass cultivation.

"I am very proud that I can work with the CSIR. I must say that at the age of 58, this is the first organisation that’s working with us," said Vaalbooi.

Roger Chennels, a lawyer for the San Council, is at pains to point out the irony of an appetite suppressant drug could be developed from the "traditional knowledge of perhaps the hungriest people in the world".

But, commenting on the significance of the deal, he added: "For the first time traditional people’s knowledge is protected from commercialisation. Whatever amount gets set here could become a benchmark for sharing of money. Other people could demand the same."

Dr Tony Crook, an anthropologist at St Andrews University who has carried out a research project on indigenous property rights funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, said: "What you patent is the industrial application, the process. In a sense these people are entering into a very altruistic agreement."

While testing of P57 continues, the San will receive a first "milestone" royalty payment next year.

Pfizer said it was "cautiously enthusiastic" about the potential of the hoodia plant, which is one of more than 100 drugs the company is testing as treatments for human health problems.

While it has undergone early trials, a drug made from hoodia still faces years of tests to meet stringent criteria of Pfizer itself and drug regulatory agencies worldwide. If P57 gains regulatory approval it could go on the market in 2008.

Dr Alvaro Viljoen, a lecturer in pharmacology and chemistry at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said: "I believe that this is going to be huge, far bigger than Viagra. Judging from the magnitude of the obesity problem, this will be enormously big. I don’t think we can even begin to comprehend the impact economically."

In America obesity kills more than 280,000 people a year and the market for diet drugs is worth more than £2bn a year. In Britain the proportion of overweight men and women is 62% and 53% respectively.

The San leadership is currently discussing what to do with the money from the hoodia. It is expected that it will be invested in improving the health, education and housing of the people, and securing their land and water.

"It is the largest amount they have ever had to spend," explained Andries Steenkamp, a member of the San Council.

He added that thrashing out the deal had given the San new-found confidence.
"We are not afraid that our old knowledge can be stolen because now we can follow it up."

News.scotsman.com

HOODIA ON THE NEWS - New Wonder Diet Drug?

August 10, 2003 By KOMO Staff & News Services

UNDATED - The Kalahari is 100,000 square miles of African desert. The San people ,the bushmen who hunt there, come from a different age.

Now, drug companies are tapping into the San's knowledge, and betting millions that these bushmen can help the most advanced societies on earth.

All because of the hoodia plant, which the San people have long relied on to survive.
One San hunter says "I learned it from my forefathers. It is my food, my water, my medicine."
It's medicine because a little hoodia can kill severe hunger pains and quench the most powerful thirst. For the desert hunter it is a godsend.

Now one man's cure for hunger is turning into another's diet drug.

Phizer, the pharmaceutical giant, has invested $21 million dollars to turn hoodia into an appetite suppressant. With 100 million westerners dangerously overweight or obese, the market for diet drugs is billions of dollars a year. But the San, say the people who study them, were mystified when told the outside world had a weight problem.

Nigel Crawhall from the South African San Institute says "Why would anyone want to lose weight by taking the hoodia plant, because it's meant for travelling across the desert? So people thought it was a bit weird in the first place."

The drug's developers call the active compound in the plant P57. They say it works by mimicking the effect glucose has on the nerve cells in the brain, in effect telling us we're full, even when we are not... thus curbing the appetite.

P57 is still a few years from reaching the market, and there has already been a legal battle over it. The first company to patent P57 tried to do it without paying the bushmen any money. One court challenge later, the San had an agreement: they now help cultivate the plant, and should the drug come to market, their impoverished community stands to prosper.

"At first we were angry," says one San leader. "Others would get rich and we would stay poor. Now we pray the product will succeed, and we will all benefit."

Some of the world's hungriest people who have always had too little benefiting by helping those who have too much.

KOMOTV NEWS

HOODIA ON THE NEWS - Africa's Bushmen May Get Rich From Diet-Drug Secret

Leon Marshall in Johannesburgfor National Geographic News

April 16, 2003

The wheel of fortune could be turning for southern Africa's San, or Bushmen.

Sidelined over decades because of their dwindling numbers and ancient way of life, the San have been reduced to a few struggling communities living on the fringes of society. But now their traditional knowledge may be their salvation; they stand to make a lot of money—and gain much respect—from the international marketing of an appetite-suppressant they have been using for thousands of generations.

The drug named P57 is based on a substance scientists found in the desert plant Hoodia gordinii.

The San call the cactus !khoba and have been chewing on it for thousands of years to stave off hunger and thirst during long hunting trips in their parched Kalahari desert home.

A deal has been signed between the South African San Council and the country's Scientific and Industrial Research Council (CSIR), which identified the appetite-suppressing ingredient in Hoodia during research into indigenous plants in 1996. At a small ceremony recently held in the Kalahari desert near the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, which South Africa shares with Botswana, the San and the CSIR made a deal to share royalties earned by commercial sale of the San's ancient knowledge of the plant.

The overly nourished millions of people in the developed world spend billions of dollars a year on preparations and remedies to combat obesity. Effective new products that help shed weight are always in high demand.

Children danced and sang as members of the San community watched their leaders sign the deal. The chairman of the San Council, Petrus Vaalbooi, said, "We are thankful that the traditional knowledge of our forefathers is acknowledged by this important agreement, and that we are making it known to the world. As San leaders we are determined to protect all aspects of our heritage."

The landmark deal signed by the San could blaze the trail for indigenous communities elsewhere in the world. Many traditional cultures have ancient knowledge of the healing powers of plants—intellectual property that is often not recognized, let alone protected for commercial gain.
Defining Moment for the San

For the San the agreement could be a defining moment as it could mark a turn for the better in ways other than a financial windfall.

In terms of the deal, the CSIR will pay the San 8 percent of milestone payments made by its licensee, UK-based Phytopharm, during the drug's clinical development over the next few years. This could come to more than a million dollars.

The biggest revenue stream could come from 6 percent royalties the San would receive if and when the drug is marketed by the international drug giant Pfizer, which has in turn been licensed by Phytopharm. Given the international demand for obesity drugs, the market for P57 could run to billions of dollars.

The South African San Council was stung into action by a reported remark by a Pfizer representative to the effect that the San had used the Hoodia but that they were extinct. This was in answer to questions by journalists whether the San could expect compensation for their contribution to the prospective blockbuster drug.

South African human rights lawyer Roger Chennels, who took up the San's case, said they immediately challenged the CSIR. "The negotiations were tough, but the San had the moral high ground. Once their moral ownership of the intellectual property rights was recognized, and once they wisely agreed to enter into a partnership, the dealings became reasonable," Chennels said.

Though the South African San Council was set up in 2001 to represent the country's Khomani, !Xun, and Khwe tribes, a trust has been set up (please see side bar) that will share the money with other San groups in neighboring Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and Angola. This is in recognition of the fact that indigenous knowledge, as with the Hoodia plant, is mostly shared by tribes across national boundaries.

The San are southern Africa's oldest human inhabitants, having lived in the sub-continent for at least the past 20,000 years and possibly going back 40,000 years. But from the many, possibly even millions, who once roamed the plains and mountains, only about 100,000 remain.

Brink of Extinction

The South African San Institute (SASI), a non-governmental organization that mobilizes resources for the benefit of the San, explains they have been driven to the brink of extinction first by African agro-pastoralists who started arriving from central Africa from about 1,800 years ago, and then by European settlers who arrived from the mid-17th century.
SASI says few San are able to live by hunting and gathering today. Most work as farm laborers. A few groups run nature conservancies, but others live unemployed in marginal settlements, with no income other than small pensions from the state.

Nigel Crawhall, a San linguist who heads up SASI's culture and heritage management program, believes the Hoodia-drug deal could help rescue what remains of San culture.

The SASI program is essentially about trying to mend San society and reconstruct San culture, and so set its remaining communities on a more sustainable path.

The San have largely lost their sense of community and identity by being dispossessed of their territories and becoming physically dispersed. They have suffered language loss and some of their important social institutions have become dysfunctional.

Reconstructing San society and culture is an intricate process which is aimed at getting dialogue going between the elders who still have knowledge of some of the old ways and the younger generation who have lost it. The purpose is to get them talking about what had gone lost and what not, and about safeguarding that which is important. It is a process of self-discovery, says SASI.

Apart from the prospective financial benefits from the Hoodia deal, Crawhall says, there is much it could do to assist this difficult process, also by way of creating a more helpful relationship between the San and the world they live in.

He explains: "The San thought nobody was interested in them. Now Hoodia has come along. They are excited and have even become a bit secretive about their use of plants, even though most of this has already been written up in books. But their young people do not know about these uses, and that could change now that there is this mass market of the developed world wanting to use their discovery for body cosmetics.

"What struck them was that anybody would want to use such medicines to lose weight. So there is also this interesting interface with the outside world."

Fortuituous Confluence

To Crawhall, the Hoodia deal forms part of a fortuitous confluence of factors which could spell a better future for the San. It fits well with the consciousness of human rights that has come with South Africa's new democratic constitution and which has already resulted in important land-restitution breakthroughs for the San. It also fits well with the growing international awareness of indigenous minorities and their rights.

Chennels, who has also been fighting the San's legal battle for restitution of their traditional land, says he believes the deal represents notable recognition and acknowledgement of the importance of the traditional knowledge and heritage of the San peoples.

"This groundbreaking, benefit-sharing agreement between a local research council and the San represents enormous potential for future bioprospecting successes based on the San's extensive knowledge of the traditional uses of indigenous plants of the area.

"We are optimistic that this case will serve as a sound foundation for future collaboration, not only for the San but also for other holders of traditional knowledge," he said.

See the story at National Geographic

HOODIA ON THE NEWS - S African bushmen hail drug deal

Last Updated: Monday, 24 March, 2003, 23:56 GMT

South Africa's indigenous San peoples have signed a deal ensuring they will profit from a diet drug being developed from a plant they have used for generations.

Under the terms of the agreement, the San people will receive regular fees as the drug - developed from a plant used to suppress the appetite - passes various stages on the way to market.

They will also receive a proportion of the royalties if and when it becomes commercially available, which could be in as little as five years.

The San people hailed the agreement as a "joyous moment".
"In the past, it used to be the norm to exploit their knowledge and culture but today is an example of how things have changed," said Kxao Moses, chairman of the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa.

Harnessing knowledge

The San people, who number about 100,000 and who originate in the region of the Kalahari desert in south-west Africa, have used a plant called hoodia to suppress hunger pangs on long hunting trips for generations.

But although Western scientists became aware of the plant's potential 100 years ago, it was only recently that its active ingredient - P57 - was patented by the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

Subsequently, a British biotechnology company, Phytopharm, and the pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer acquired the rights to its development and commercialisation as an anti-obesity drug for use in the West.

Now the San people, in the first deal of its kind, will be rewarded for the development of a drug which makes use of their traditional knowledge.

At the signing of the agreement in Andriesvale, a small town in the Kalahari desert in South Africa's Northern Cape province, South African Minister of Arts and Culture Ben Ngubane said the deal symbolised "the restoration of the dignity of indigenous societies".

"The responsibility that comes from playing in the field of biodiversity, arguable Africa's richest asset, is not slight," he said.

See the story at BBC

HOODIA ON THE NEWS - Bush medicine set to deliver breakthrough obesity remedy

[Date: 2003-01-08]
A cactus native to the Kalahari Desert region of southern Africa and used by indigenous San bushmen to stave off hunger during long hunting expeditions is to be developed into a remedy to fight obesity.

The six foot plant, called Hoodia, contains an active ingredient which research has shown could reduce appetite by up to 2,000 calories a day. The remedy was originally patented by the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and licensed by British company Phytopharm. The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is now developing a pill based on the plant, also known as P57, which they hope will banish food cravings and have a major impact on the six billion euro global slimming aid market.

More than 100 million people worldwide are thought to be at risk from conditions related to obesity, such as heart disease and diabetes. Pfizer hopes that the remedy, which has already been tested on healthy volunteers in Britain, will be available in pill form by 2007.

Phytopharm and the CSIR came in for criticism when it was revealed that the two sides had made financial arrangements for development of the drug without consulting the San tribe, who's traditional knowledge led to the discovery of Hoodia's appetite-suppressing properties.

The explanation offered by Phytopharm chief executive Richard Dixey was that he thought the nomadic people had died out. Since discovering that around 100,000 San still populate regions of Angola, South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia, a deal has been struck that will see the bushmen receive a proportion of the profits from the sale of the drug.

The very existence of the San tribe had been in question, with a dispersed population and lack of opportunities creating the very real threat of extinction. Under the new deal, it is hoped that millions of euro could be generated each year to fund education programmes, create jobs, and allow the San to buy land.

All of which should ensure a healthy future for the tribe, as well as those set to benefit from the new wonder drug. In one way or another, the survival of the San owes much to the special properties of the Hoodia plant.

For further information, please consult the following web address: http://www.phytopharm.com/Platforms/MetabolicSyndrome_P57.shtml

CORDIS NEWS

HOODIA ON THE NEWS - Kalahari cactus boosts UK firm

Tuesday, 30 July, 2002, 11:44 GMT 12:44 UK

An anti-obesity drug made from a Kalahari desert cactus is a step closer to reality after its developer, UK drug company Phytopharm, signed a fresh deal with US giant Pfizer.
The deal means Pfizer will take development of the drug, called P57, inhouse, and will aim for key clinical tests by 2003.

The US group will pay $2.8m for half a ton of chips from the Hoodia Gordonii cactus which forms the basis for P57.

The deal also means that while Pfizer develops botanical versions of the drug, Phytopharm is free to come up with semi-synthetic variants by itself.

In the hope of staving off the anger that sometimes surrounds companies which exploit traditional medicines without rewarding their original discoverers, the company signed a deal in 1997 with the South African government for a cut of the royalties.

The announcement, which could mean $32m for Phytopharm in milestone payments as development proceeds as well as royalties on sales, triggered a sharp rise in the company's shares.

Having drifted lower and lower in recent weeks, largely on a lack of fresh news about P57, Phytopharm shares rose as much as 12% in early trading before settling back to a near-5% gain at 280 pence by 1050 GMT.

Herbal remedies
P57 is central to the future of Phytopharm, a company which started out reverse-engineering Chinese herbal remedies.

Since then, it has continued to concentrate on traditional natural medicines.

In P57's case, the Hoodia Gordonii cactus has been used for centuries by the Xhomani Sans bushmen of southern Africa's Kalahari desert, to suppress the appetite during long hunting trips.

It works by making patients feel full after ingesting it, and the company says it has been shown to lower food intake by 30-40% in a small study just completed.

See the article at BBC

HOODIA ON THE NEWS - African Plant May Help Fight Fat - 60 MINUTES

Nov. 21, 2004
(CBS) Each year, people spend more than $40 billion on products designed to help them slim down. None of them seem to be working very well.

Now along comes hoodia. Never heard of it? Soon it'll be tripping off your tongue, because hoodia is a natural substance that literally takes your appetite away. It's very different from diet stimulants like Ephedra and Phenfen that are now banned because of dangerous side effects. Hoodia doesn't stimulate at all. Scientists say it fools the brain by making you think you’re full, even if you've eaten just a morsel. Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports.

Hoodia is a bitter-tasting cactus-like plant. 60 Minutes was told that if it wanted to try hoodia, it would have to go to Africa. Why? Because the only place in the world where hoodia grows wild is in the Kalahari Desert of South Africa.

Nigel Crawhall, a linguist and interpreter, hired an experienced tracker named Toppies Kruiper, a local aboriginal Bushman, to help find it. The Bushmen were featured in the movie “The Gods Must Be Crazy.”

Kruiper led 60 Minutes crews out into the desert. Stahl asked him if he ate hoodia. "I really like to eat them when the new rains have come," says Kruiper, speaking through the interpreter. "Then they're really quite delicious."

When we located the plant, Kruiper cut off a stalk that looked like a small spiky pickle, and removed the sharp spines. In the interest of science, Stahl ate it. She described the taste as "a little cucumbery in texture, but not bad."

So how did it work? Stahl says she had no after effects – no funny taste in her mouth, no queasy stomach, and no racing heart. She also wasn't hungry all day, even when she would normally have a pang around mealtime. And, she also had no desire to eat or drink the entire day. "I'd have to say it did work," says Stahl.

Although the West is just discovering hoodia, the Bushmen of the Kalahari have been eating it for a very long time. After all, they have been living off the land in southern Africa for more than 100,000 years.

Some of the Bushmen, like Anna Swartz, still live in old traditional huts, and cook so-called Bush food gathered from the desert the old-fashioned way.

The first scientific investigation of the plant was conducted at South Africa’s national laboratory. Because Bushmen were known to eat hoodia, it was included in a study of indigenous foods.

"What they found was when they fed it to animals, the animals ate it and lost weight," says Dr. Richard Dixey, who heads an English pharmaceutical company called Phytopharm that is trying to develop weight-loss products based on hoodia.

Was hoodia's potential application as an appetite suppressant immediately obvious?

"No, it took them a long time. In fact, the original research was done in the mid 1960s," says Dixey.

It took the South African national laboratory 30 years to isolate and identify the specific appetite-suppressing ingredient in hoodia. When they found it, they applied for a patent and licensed it to Phytopharm.

Phytopharm has spent more than $20 million so far on research, including clinical trials with obese volunteers that have yielded promising results. Subjects given hoodia ended up eating about 1,000 calories a day less than those in the control group. To put that in perspective, the average American man consumes about 2,600 calories a day; a woman about 1,900.

"If you take this compound every day, your wish to eat goes down. And we've seen that very, very dramatically," says Dixey.

But why do you need a patent for a plant? "The patent is on the application of the plant as a weight-loss material. And, of course, the active compounds within the plant. It’s not on the plant itself," says Dixey.

SEE THE COMPLET STORY AT CBS NEWS

HOODIA ON THE NEWS - Sampling the Kalahari Cactus Diet

BBC report on HoodiaFriday, 30 May, 2003, 09:56 GMT 10:56 UK

By Tom MangoldBBC 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 cactus
A molecule in the cactus makes you feel fullWhen 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 Channels.
And they will need all the help they can to secure the money.

Blood sugar
According 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 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 trials
Dixey organised 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.

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 Capetown. 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 future
Mr Channels 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 flavouring to counter its unpleasant taste, but if it has no side effects and no cumulative side-effects.”

BBC Two’s Correspondent was broadcast on Sunday, 1 June, 2003 at 1915 BST. To view the original BBC Report Click Here.

HOODIA ON THE NEWS - Hoodia Gordonii The Answer to Obesity in the West

February. 3, 2003
by SAHM VENTER AND IAN JOHNSTON

"IT IS my food, my water and my medicine," said Kalahari bushman Hans Kortman, fondly describing the hoodia gordonii cactus he was chewing.

But the apparently nondescript hoodia gordonii plant has two properties Kortman failed to mention. It promises to provide the pharmaceutical industry with its Holy Grail - a safe, natural cure for obesity - and to make him and the other bushmen of the Kalahari very wealthy indeed.
In a landmark deal, due to be signed in a matter of days, the San tribe of southern Africa are to become the first indigenous people to be awarded intellectual property rights over a drug from hoodia gordonii whose medicinal properties they first recognised. They very nearly missed out on any payment at all.

For thousands of years the San tribe have eked out a meagre living in the Kalahari. The medicinal uses of the hoodia gordonii cactus have been handed down from generation to generation; its capacity to stave off hunger and thirst has proved invaluable to the San hunters who have to spend days without food or water while searching for their quarry on the Kalahari’s arid planes.

The potential of the plant as a cure for obesity was recognised by the British firm Phytopharm, which patented the plant’s appetite-suppressant drug (P57) and sold the rights to the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, the owner of the impotence drug Viagra, for £13m. However, Phytopharm, based in Cambridge, initially cut the San tribe - who number around 100,000 in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Angola - out of the deal, mistakenly claiming that they had died out.
Now, after two years of legal wrangling, all the parties have finally agreed a deal which will recognise the San people’s ancient knowledge of the hoodia’s properties. Once it is signed, the agreement will represent a milestone in the long-running controversy that has surrounded the commercial exploitation of medicinal plants that have been used by indigenous tribes since pre-history.

Hoodia Gordonii from the Kalahari desert can cure obesity

The exact amount the San will receive has still to be decided, but there has already been talk of a payment of just over £6m a year in recognition of their traditional knowledge. If P57 proves commercially viable, it will prove hugely lucrative for drugs companies. The market for slimming aids in the US alone is already worth £6bn, and rates of obesity in the West are rising fast.

Petrus Vaalbooi, 58, chairman of the San Council, is overjoyed that a deal has finally been struck. "I feel proud that this can mean something for our community," he said.

The San people’s roots in southern Africa go back 150,000 years. They are recognised as the world’s oldest indigenous culture. It is almost a miracle that they still exist after hundreds of years of persecution. They were captured as slaves, ravaged by European diseases, shot by Boer farmers - who regarded them as vermin - on organised hunts as recently as the beginning of the 20th century, and forcibly removed from their land under apartheid. Repeated abuses left them living in poverty with a high incidence of alcoholism.

But after the fall of the apartheid regime, then South African president Nelson Mandela moved quickly to return a large tract of land to the San, and this has helped spark a revival of their culture. Nevertheless, many of the former hunter-gatherers are still reliant on subsistence farming and making craftwork for tourists.

When the newly enfranchised San discovered two years ago that not only had an arrangement to exploit hoodia been made without them, but that it was suggested that they were extinct, they instructed lawyers to investigate.

"Our knowledge was taken to make money for other people," said Vaalbooi.

Months of negotiation followed between the San and South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), finally resulting in the royalty deal.

The CSIR and Phytopharm have started a plantation at a secret location in the Northern Cape province to conduct further research on hoodia gordonii, which can only be grown in desert conditions, with a view to mass cultivation.

"I am very proud that I can work with the CSIR. I must say that at the age of 58, this is the first organisation that’s working with us," said Vaalbooi.

Roger Chennels, a lawyer for the San Council, is at pains to point out the irony of an appetite suppressant drug could be developed from the "traditional knowledge of perhaps the hungriest people in the world".

But, commenting on the significance of the deal, he added: "For the first time traditional people’s knowledge is protected from commercialisation. Whatever amount gets set here could become a benchmark for sharing of money. Other people could demand the same."

Dr Tony Crook, an anthropologist at St Andrews University who has carried out a research project on indigenous property rights funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, said: "What you patent is the industrial application, the process. In a sense these people are entering into a very altruistic agreement."

While testing of P57 continues, the San will receive a first "milestone" royalty payment next year.

Pfizer said it was "cautiously enthusiastic" about the potential of the hoodia plant, which is one of more than 100 drugs the company is testing as treatments for human health problems.
While it has undergone early trials, a drug made from hoodia still faces years of tests to meet stringent criteria of Pfizer itself and drug regulatory agencies worldwide. If P57 gains regulatory approval it could go on the market in 2008.

Dr Alvaro Viljoen, a lecturer in pharmacology and chemistry at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said: "I believe that this is going to be huge, far bigger than Viagra. Judging from the magnitude of the obesity problem, this will be enormously big. I don’t think we can even begin to comprehend the impact economically."

In America obesity kills more than 280,000 people a year and the market for diet drugs is worth more than £2bn a year. In Britain the proportion of overweight men and women is 62% and 53% respectively.

The San leadership is currently discussing what to do with the money from the hoodia. It is expected that it will be invested in improving the health, education and housing of the people, and securing their land and water.

"It is the largest amount they have ever had to spend," explained Andries Steenkamp, a member of the San Council.

He added that thrashing out the deal had given the San new-found confidence.
"We are not afraid that our old knowledge can be stolen because now we can follow it up."

SOURCE www.cordis.com

New move to extend food stamps to supplements

by Jess Halliday

 

8/4/2005 - The introduction of a bill that would enable Americans receiving food stamps to spend them on vitamins and minerals has met with applause from supplements industry associations on the grounds that it would help low-income families to meet their nutritional needs.

The Food Stamp Vitamin and Mineral Improvement Act of 2005, championed by Senators Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), aims to extend the scope of the existing food stamp program, which has existed in a number of different forms since 1939. The first food stamp act was passed in 1964, but was supplanted by new legislation in 1977.

 

Similar attempts to extend the program to some supplements were made in 1999 and 2001.

Recipients of food stamps or holders of the new ‘electronic benefits transfer card’ can exchange them in selected stores for food items. Hot foods, foods that will be eaten in the store, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, medicines and, at present, vitamins cannot be paid for using the scheme.

Steve Mister, president and CEO of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, is all for extension to vitamins and minerals:

“Whether it’s a woman of child-bearing age who should be taking a multivitamin with folic acid to prevent birth defects, or an elderly man who needs extra calcium to protect fragile bones, the food stamp program should provide low-income Americans with options and encouragement to improve their nutritional status. This bill would permit a family of four to supplement their conventional food intake with a simple multivitamin.”

Mister emphasized that nutritional outreach should still focus on a well-balanced diet. He told NutraIngredients-USA.com that since there are no restrictions to prevent people from spending food stamps on junk food, they should also be able to use them for nutritional supplements.

“The USDA has decided that it does not include products sold solely for nutritional supplement, and as it won’t change this policy we think it is up to Congress to put it right.”

As to whether the bill will encourage people to think they can eat whatever junk food they want and derive their nutrients from supplements alone, Mister said:

“That is why they are called dietary supplements, not dietary substitutes. Americans who make the choice to be healthy should have the means and tools to do so.”

The CRN has sent a letter to the Senate Agriculture and Forestry Committee expressing support for the bill, which it says would “allow the millions and millions of low-income Americans who rely on food stamps to better meet their nutritional needs”.

According to statistics from the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, around 21.3 million people in 9.2 million households received food stamps each month in 2003.

Over half of food stamp recipients in 2003 were children, and nine percent were over 60. While the majority of households were not also receiving cash welfare benefits and 28 percent had earnings coming in, less than 12 percent were above the poverty line.

The typical household had gross income of $640 per month and received food stamps worth $185 each month.

Full story at nutraingredients.com

Hoodia 60 Minutes

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Hoodia P57

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• information and news on aloe processors
• information and news from aloe NGO´s
• information, news and resources on public policies affecting the aloe business
• news on new product developments
• Information, resources and news on aloe production, trade, markets and financing
• Information on new project developments, technical assistance and consulting services on the industry
• Distance learning courses on aloe production
• The weather affecting main aloe producing areas

The most complete place to know about the aloe business in Latin America, Spain and Portugal.

The blog is maintained by Aloetrade Latin America