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| The Hoodia: Metaphor for a Divided World - a little known, hard-to-find, cactus-like succulent plant Hoodia Gordonii symbolizes the food gap in today's world. In the Kalahari Desert of southern Africa, San Bushmen chew the Hoodia because it contains an appetite-suppressing ingredient that fends off hunger, which the Bushmen frequently experienced in their old hunter/gathering lifestyle. And they still continue to experience it in the Indian reservation-like communities where they are now confined. |
| Some years ago, a South African scientific research organization isolated the appetite-suppressing ingredient in Hoodia and patented it. The organization licensed the patent to a small British firm called Phytopharm, which then sold it to Pfizer, the giant pharmaceutical firm. Pfizer hoped to create a diet pill containing the Hoodia compound, but the plan to isolate and synthesize the ingredient proved more difficult than expected, and not cost-effective. So now, Phytopharm has the patent back and has established Hoodia plantations in South Africa. The company plans to market a diet product containing Hoodia by about 2007. |
| The San Bushmen protested what they felt to be the theft of their indigenous knowledge of Hoodia by companies seeking to make profits on it, and eventually a settlement was reached that would give the San royalties from the products sold by Phytopharm, although traditional San leaders are skeptical that the royalties will really be paid. |
| Already, small amounts of Hoodia are sold on the internet as diet supplements by other companies without compensation for the San. If and when the Phytopharm product reaches the market it will serve as a powerful metaphor for a world where some people, especially in the US and Europe, die from too much food, while millions more die from too little. |
You can see video clips and read related interviews with Khomani San tracker Vet Piet Kleinman and Khomani San traditional leader Dawid Kruiper on our Web Site. More information about Hoodia can be found at:
- PHYTOPHARM - HOODIA GORDONII FACT FILE
Phytopharm is the pharmaceutical company developing a diet pill from the Hoodia plant.
www.phytopharm.com/hoodia_faq.html
- PLANTZAFRICA
Plantzafrica provides information about plants native to southern Africa and related topics. This specific page addresses the Hoodia plant.
www.plantzafrica.com/planthij/hoodia.htm
- WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
ORGANIZATION (WIPO)
The Patent Cooperation Treaty Information Service of WIPO provides information and references about the Hoodia plant.
www.wipo.int/pct/en/inventions/hoodia/
- WIPO MAGAZINE - INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
AS A LEVER FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH.
THE AFRICAN EXPERIENCE
This article explores the Hoodia case and focuses on, among other things, the ramifications for the San and the lessons learned (November - December 2003).
www.wipo.int/pct/en/inventions/hoodia/african
_experience.pdf
- SAN
This site contains information about the San, formerly known as Bushmen, who are the aboriginal people of southern Africa.
www.san.org.za/index.htm
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