University:
Amherst College
Course:
BIOL 104 | Food, Fiber, and Pharmaceuticals
Academic year:

2024
Views:

349

Pages:

9
Author:

Aidyn Tanner

Hoodia gordonii • General Info • Medicinal uses – Appe7te depressant • How it works • History • Problems with making into a diet supplement Basics: • Apocynaceae, milkweed family, known for producing poisonous latex. • Other names: xhooba or ghaap • Kalahari semi‐deserts of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola. Looks like a cactus, spiny water collec7ng succulent stems Takes 3 yrs to reach maturity Lives for 15‐25 yrs Produces ﬂesh colored ﬂowers that smell like decaying meat, aPract ﬂies that pollinate it. • It was used for thousands of years by the San Bushmen people • Appe$te depressant and thirst quencher – indiges7on problems – severe abdominal cramps – Indiges7on – tuberculosis – hypertension – diabetes – small infec7ons P57 • Makes a steroidal glycoside that aﬀects the central nervous system messengers. • Neuropep7tes read the glycoside as a compact version of glucose so the brain receives a message that enough food has been eaten • Causes appe7te receptors to turn oﬀ, no more hunger pains. • Studies show people taking small amounts of it over 4 weeks were consuming around 1000 less calories per day and signiﬁcant weight loss Why can’t I get some? • P57 was isolated by a South African Council for Scien7ﬁc Research (CSIR) lab in 1997 • Sold a patent for P57 to Phytopharm, pharmaceu7cal company in the UK • Teamed up w/ Pﬁzer and Unilever to make an an7‐ obesity drug but ran into problems – – – – There isn’t enough in Africa to harvest Couldn’t synthesize it Hard to cul7vate Possibly causes harm to the liver Americans spend about 30 billion dollars on weight loss • Supplement scams • many supplements claim to have hoodia in them, marke7ng the naturalness and the beneﬁts that the San people are supposedly geang • 80% don’t have any hoodia in them In 2002 CSIR oﬃcially recognized the San people’s rights over Hoodia so they could get a percentage of the proﬁts from any drugs made from it, but the drug hasn’t been made and most money doesn’t make it back because of legali7es.

Hoodia Gordonii

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