Is the end in sight for obesity and hunger pangs?

 

A small succulent which grows in the Kalahari Desert could be the answer to our obesity problems, reports Bill Corcoran in Johannesburg.

Picture this: an organic dietary product that suppresses the desire to eat and significantly reduces a person's calorie intake. It has no known side-effects and contains a molecule that makes your brain tell the rest of your body you are not hungry.
If you are one of the almost two million Irish people either overweight or obese (13 per cent obese, 34 per cent overweight - Slán 2003), the existence of such a product would appear to be the answer to your prayers: with no hunger pangs wracking your body, successful dieting would be within your grasp.
But such a product is mere fantasy; it doesn't exist, right?
Well, inside South Africa's Kalahari Desert grows a small succulent called Hoodia gordonii, which has a spiny exterior appearance similar to that of cacti.
For as long as they can remember, San bushmen - Southern Africa's oldest inhabitants whose culture is intrinsically connected to the natural world - have eaten the Hoodia succulent during long arduous treks through the desert's inhospitable interior to stave off hunger pangs when food was scarce.
The bushmen did not know why eating the plant staved off hunger, they just knew it did.
During the mid-1990s scientists from South Africa's Council for Scientific Research and Industry (CSIR) tested the plant, due to the San bushmen's occasional use of it as a food source, and they found a previously unknown molecule which they labelled P57 and proceeded to test it for toxins.
According to the CSIR, it was observed by the research team that Hoodia extract caused a decrease in the appetite and body weight of animals that did not appear to be due to a direct toxic effect of the extract.
After grasping the potential of the P57 molecule, the South Africans cut a deal with the San bushmen to compensate them for the use of the intellectual property rights associated with their traditional knowledge, which had been passed down through the ages.
"This agreement obliged the CSIR to pay to the San 8 per cent of all milestone payments received by them through the licensing of the P57 patent, and 6 per cent of all future royalties," says the San bushmen's legal representative, Roger Chennels, who finalised the deal in 2003.