THOUSANDS of South African Bushmen are to receive a royalty windfall after a Cambridgeshire company yesterday signed a deal with Unilever to develop one of their bush plants into a slimming aid.

The San people of the Kalahari are to share in the profits from a licensing arrangement that could ultimately generate more than $600 million (£310 million) in sales. The move comes after Phytopharm, a drugs developer that specialises in making medicines from plants, agreed to develop an appetite-suppressant for the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods group.

The slimming aid is derived from Hoodia gordonii, a bush plant that the San have used for generations to stave off hunger during long hunting trips. The plant, known to local Bushmen as “Jackal’s food”, tricks the brain into thinking that the stomach is full by elevating the number of blood sugars in the bloodstream.

Initial studies show that the plant could be more effective as a dieting aid than existing meal replacements because the plant curbs the feeling of hunger, rather than simply reducing calorific intake.

Unilever and Phytopharm will collaborate on a five-stage development programme to test the safety and efficacy of a snack or bar made from plant extracts. Unilever will be responsible for bolstering production of the Hoodia plant from a current eight million to several hundred million. If trials go well, a product could be on the shelves by 2008.

Unilever said that it was too early to say what form an eventual product containing the plant might take. However, the company said that a line of appetite-supressants would sit well alongside its Slim-Fast dieting range. Phytopharm bought the rights to the Hoodia plant from the South African Council for Scientific Research and Development in 1997. This, in turn, has a benefit-sharing agreement with the South African San Council, which will distribute royalty payments. Phytopharm shares rose 10 per cent to 239p.

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