| • Endangered
species • Cross pollinated • Hybrid plants |
Hoodias were declared a protected
species and international trade (export from
Africa) became illegal without a license. The seed
for Hoodias that was available came from A)
European rare plant collectors; and B) Rare
plant collectors in the USA.
No one knows how pure that seed
supply is
Since Hoodias readily cross pollinate
into hybrid plants no one knows what the seed one
grows will become. You simply have to grow the plant
until it matures, then try to identify it.
Commercial agriculture breeds plants for
their desirable characteristics such as taste,
abundance of fruit, disease resistance, etc. Farmers
don't plant unknown seeds; they only plant ones with
certified lineage.
To apply this principle to Hoodia would require
selecting specimens that contain the maximum
percentage of P57, then breeding them to produce
seed. These plants in turn would have to be grown to
maturity, tested, and bred with others, etc. This is a large and
complicated undertaking.
It would require many years
of development with an investment of millions of dollars. The end
product would be a fast maturing, heavy producing
Hoodia with a high percentage of the desirable P57.
The plants would have good disease resistance, with
other desirable commercial attributes.
Rather than reproducing them by seed they would be
cloned as commercial orchards are. Crops such as
grapes, apples, peaches, almonds, etc. are NOT grown
by seed—they are propagated by cuttings. Hoodia
could be farmed the same way.
Liver problems killed the research
Then why isn't this being done? Because the extract
of Hoodia causes "unwanted effects on the liver"
remember? Why spend years of time with huge amounts
of money on something already abandoned by one major
pharmaceutical firm? If the extract can't pass FDA
tests for safety no one will risk the research.
Thus, Hoodia plants exist now in a kind of limbo
where scammers profit because
"dietary supplements" are not scrutinized by the
FDA. |
|
TAXON NAME Range States STATUS 1997
STATUS 2002...
H. gordonii (Masson) Sweet ex Decne. NA, ZA nt LR...
[Not threatened, Low Risk}
H. juttae Dinter NA R VU... [Rare, Vulnerable]
H. officinalis (N.E.Br.) Plowes subsp. delaetiana (Dinter)
Bruyns NA R EN...
H.pilifera (L.f.) Plowes subsp. annulata (N.E.Br.)
Bruyns ZA R... [Rare]
H. ruschii Dinter NA I VU... [Vulnerable]
H. triebneri (Nel) Bruyns NA R VU... |
BO = Botswana , NA = Namibia , ZA =
South Africa , ZM = Zimbabwe
EN = Endangered, VU = Vulnerable, LR = Low
Risk, LC = Least Concern (IUCN categories of
threat, 1994)
R = Rare, V = Vulnerable, I = Indeterminate,
nt = not threatened (IUCN categories of
threat, pre-1994) |
PERMITS
Hoodia species, including H. gordonii, are protected
species in southern Africa . This means that permits
are required for certain activities... H. gordonii ,
as well as other Hoodia species, are listed as
protected species under the Environmental
Conservation Ordinance No.19 of 1974. No one is
allowed to harvest, collect, damage, collect seeds,
trade (import or export) or transport any Hoodia
material without a valid permit from the Permit
Section of the Directorate of Conservation Service
in the Northern Cape...
In terms of Nature Conservation Ordinance 19 of 1974
for ANYONE to trade in Hoodia (or any protected
flora), that person will need to be registered and
licensed by the Western Cape Nature Conservation
Office. Any party involved in the commercial trade
of Hoodia , whether it is the primary grower (who
grows and harvests the material for sale) or the end
seller (who buys it from the grower for processing
and resale) must be registered and licensed.
Furthermore, an export permit is required to export
Hoodia in any form (raw or processed) out of the
Province (an Ordinance permit) and out of the
country (a CITES permit). |
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| Collectors in Europe have been
deliberately cross pollinating Hoodia. How
do we know that the seed sources sold in the
USA are not similarly hybrids? |
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| Lab wants to trade my cactus for
testing? |
I requested a price for P57 testing of my Hoodias from
a laboratory. In response I received this
a reply asking to trade services for my cactus. Videos of a
cat were attached. I did not watch them.
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