Part of the reasoning for Unilever’s controversial 2008 decision to sever a €20m partnership with UK firm Phytopharm to develop the weight management plant hoodia gordonii has become apparent, with disappointing trial results published this month.
Phytopharm ceo Tim Sharpington insists that Hoodia remains an ‘interesting’ functional food ingredient, despite confirming that the firm has returned its production patents to the South African government scientific body it has leased them off since 1995.
Phytopharm, the UK start-up Unilever dumped in November after spending more than €20m euros in a failed attempt to develop a hoodia-based weight management product, says it is in discussions with major food and food supplements players about the South...
A group of defendants allegedly involved in selling bogus weight
loss hoodia supplements through illegal spam e-mails have settled
charges with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The quality of the hoodia gordonii supply chain has once
again been brought into question after a Kansas-based contract
manufacturer sued one of its suppliers for selling fake
material.
The Afriplex hoodia cultivation programme is yielding its first
harvest this year and is expected to significantly increase supply
of plant material available to meet growing demand from the weight
management market.
American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) members have identified
three hot areas of concern or debate for the herbal industry,
prompting the association to form special committees on Hoodia
gordonii, Ayurvedic herbal products,...
The future of hoodia supplements in Europe has been thrown into
doubt by a recent product recall in the Netherlands, alerting all
member states to the herbal's questionable regulatory status,
reports Dominique Patton.
UK company Pure Herbal Extracts has found a way to culture the
appetite-suppressing molecule from a strain of hoodia and plans to
launch supplements containing a guaranteed dose of the active
ingredient in the next six months, reports...
