Ancient Tribal Remedy Could Be Next Big Drug to Fight Obesity
By Matthew McGarry
L O N D O N, 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 drug for Westerners.
"I learned how to eat it 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 plant
called
hoodia
by trimming off the prickly spikes. "It is my food, my water, and
also a medicine for me."
According to San spokesman Andries
Steenkamp, his people ate the
hoodia 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
stops hunger and
also treats sickness," Steenkamp told ABCNEWS. "We, San, use the
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 plant
into a miracle slimming 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 curbing the
appetite.
Clinical trials in the United
Kingdom suggest P-57 could reduce appetite by up to 2,000 calories a
day, making it a potential runaway success in the
multimillion-dollar dieting industry. Developers of P-57 hope to see
it available as a prescription 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 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."
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