Date:17/12/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/12/17/stories/2004121705022000.htm

International

From salve for hunger to remedy for obesity

By Heather Tomlinson

LONDON, DEC.16. A plant used to stem the hunger pangs of African tribal people could soon be added to the meals of the obese rich who are desperate to lose their excess weight. The Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever is to develop a new range of dieting aidsthat will contain extracts of the hoodia plant, a rare cactus found in southern Africa. It has struck a Ł20-million deal with British botanical firm Phytopharm for the commercial rights to use the plant.

For generations, the San bushmen of southern Africa have used hoodia to suppress hunger when food is scarce or when hunting. ``When children are feeling hungry the San feed them hoodia so they don't feel hungry all the time,'' said Axel Thoma, a trustee of the South African San Council, which represents the tribes. ``There is a general problem in regional areas of food shortages. The food handouts are powdered milk and enriched [maize] meal, and sometimes tins of fish, but that's it.''

The problem in the developed world, where more than 20 per cent of the population is obese, is at the other end of the scale. The United States is the worst-affected: obesity is estimated to cost the U.S. economy $120 billion a year. Drug firms are desperately seeking a chemical solution, and, therefore, access to a multi-billion-dollar market.

The Phytopharm chief executive, Richard Dixey, a biochemist-turned Buddhist entrepreneur who once dated the actress Koo Stark, has had his eye on the market for some time. The firm looks to plants to provide treatments for diseases as diverse as Alzheimer's in humans and arthritis in dogs. He had been developing an appetite-suppressing drug based on hoodia in a joint venture with Pfizer, the world's largest drug firm. —