Healthy Diets for Weight Loss!

About Hoodia Gordonii Plus

History of Hoodia Gordonii Plus
As we discussed in the Review of Hoodia, the Bushmen (or the San) have used Hoodia Gordonii plants as a natural appetite suppressant for thousands of years. But how did the secret of the San draw? It turns out by accident?

In 1996 the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa was doing a study of indigenous foods that the Bushmen ate. Part of the study was to trial for toxic effects of any plants that were consumed by the Bushmen. When they came to Hoodia, not only was it non-toxic - it aided animals lose weight!

They found when they fed hoodia to creatures, the animals lost weight. By 1997, the CSIR isolated the bioactive compound in Hoodia Gordonii responsible for appetite suppression and obtained a patent. The plain was licensed to Phytopharm and they named the molecule - P57 (because it was the 57 th product they spent money on).

What did the Bushmen get for their discovery of the Hoodia Gordonii Plus plant?At first - nothing! Turns out the CSIR told Phytopharm that the tribe which discovered the Hoodia Gordonii establish had died out and therefore no royalties were due. However, as Mark Twain might say - 'tales of the Bushmen's death were greatly exaggerated'. When the Bushmen got word that Phytopharm stood to make billions of dollars off their knowledge around the hoodia gordonii plant they were not happy.

Roger Chennells, a lawyer in South Africa who represents the Bushmen, was quick to apply strong legal , moral and political pressure on both the CSIR and Phytopharm. Chennells pointed out to anyone who would listen that the taking of traditional knowledge without compensation was "bio-piracy" and must be blocked.

In what is seen as a landmark case, Chennells was able to convince the CSIR and Phytopharm to pay the Bushmen. Now, any company that legally harvests hoodia from the Kalahari desert must pay royalties back to the Bushmen. Not only is this fair and just, it also supplies an excellent way to check if the hoodia you buy is legitimate. If the company that makes the hoodia is NOT paying royalties to the Bushmen, you do NOT have a legitimate hoodia gordonii production.

So while will Phytopharm release a P57 based appetite suppressant? Probably never. As we touched on in the overview, Pfizer had originally paid Phytopharm for the corrects to market a P 57 based diet pill. After a few year of unsuccessful attempts to make P 57 synthetically, Pfizer pulled out of the deal. If a large amount of P57 could not be created inexpensively in the lab, Pfizer was not interested.

While Phytopharm was discouraged by the Pfizer decision, they knew that Hoodia Gordonii was too powerful an appetite suppressant to give up trying to bring it to the market. In December 2004, Phytopharm announced that Unilever had entered a deal to market hoodia gordonii plus in its diet foodstuff line. Therefore, rather than producing diet drugs, it looks like Phytopharm and Unilever will product diet supplements and diet foods with hoodia. The first Unilever productions will not be out until 2008.

Does Phytopharm own the patent on the whole Hoodia plant? This is an interesting question that we are sure will be decided in court one day. Here is our take on the situation - Phytopharm clearly owns the patent on the P 57 molecule. If you want to try to make a diet drug with P 57 you need to work through Phytopharm.

The question of the Hoodia Gordonii Plusi plant itself being patented is much more complicated. It is our belief that you can not patent a plant, but you can patent the use of plants and a procedure to extract plants. Here is an exact quote from Richard Dixey, CEO of Phytopharm when he appeared on 60 minutes?

'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.

So no one else can use hoodia gordonii for weight loss? "As a weight-management production without infringing the patent, that's correct," says Dixey.

The way we read this (and again we are not lawyers and are not giving any legal advice) is as follows - you can sell a Hoodia supplement, you just can NOT say it is for weight loss. This is why many of the best Hoodia Gordonii supplements have very plain labels that just say 'Hoodia Gordonii' but do not say anything about using it as a weight loss or appetite suppressant supplement.

For more information visit: About Hoodia Gordonii Plus