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Who knows the full story on
hoodia?
Wednesday, November 30, 2009
Cinda Chima
Special to The Plain Dealer
Could a cactus from southern Africa be
the solution to the nation's obesity problem?
The dietary supplement
hoodia gordonii
has drawn intense media attention both in the United States and
Great Britain. Celebrity news anchors have traveled to Africa to
sample it for themselves. "60 Minutes" correspondent Leslie Stahl
reported that after trying
hoodia,
she lost her appetite for the rest of the day. The BBC's Tom
Mangold reported a similar experience.
Supplement manufacturers have
fed off the publicity.
Hoodia-containing
products line the shelves of pharmacies and natural-foods stores.
Spam promoting
hoodia
rolls into e-mail boxes around the country.
Hoodia
is hot. But is there any evidence that it's safe and effective?
That depends on whom you talk to
and what you demand in the way of "evidence."
Hoodia gordonii
is technically a succulent, not a cactus, native to the Kalahari
desert of South Africa. For centuries, the San bushmen of South
Africa have used it to reduce hunger during times of famine. The
South African government discovered that
hoodia extracts
caused a decrease in appetite and body weight in animals.
Development rights were licensed to a UK company called Phytopharm
in 1997.
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer
signed with Phytopharm to develop a weight-loss drug using P57,
the active ingredient in
hoodia.
Pfizer backed out in 2003, saying they couldn't synthesize the
active ingredient in large enough quantities to be financially
feasible.
Late last year, Unilever signed
an agreement with Phytopharm to develop and market foods
containing
hoodia.
Unilever makes SlimFast weight-loss shakes as well as
cholesterol-lowering spreads containing plant sterol esters, a
chemical derived from plants that's been shown to lower blood
cholesterol. Unilever predicts it will take three years to
complete safety and effectiveness testing. Trevor Gorin of
Uniliver UK says that at this point it is unknown whether
hoodia
will be marketed in bars, shakes or other products.
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