Xhoba, a nondescript southern African shrub, has been an essential part of the lifestyle of the San people for centuries. The southern Africans chewed their bitter cucumber-shaped plant for one main purpose: its appetite-curbing properties that enabled them to survive the arduous hunting expeditions in the region's sweltering Kalahari Desert.

But if multi-national pharmaceutical manufacturer Pfizer has its way, an extract from the ancient herb that has been anonymous to the rest of the world could soon be sitting in millions of medicine cabinets across the Western world as a weight loss aid.

The process by which a thorn-covered desert weed becomes a central feature in the product line of a $32-billion-a-year corporate behemoth, without regard for the financial interests of the original discoverers, raises questions about the upsurge of Western interest in African ethno-medicine.

Like many African groups, the Sans ethnobotanical knowledge base developed over several millennia of tests and trials, yet occidental doctors had largely dismissed the efficacy of their treatments as myth.

It was the South African based Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, an organization that bills itself as the premier technology and research organization in Africa, that first decided to put the Sans claims to the test. Xhoba, also known as hoodia, turned out to be as potent as the San had claimed. "The bushmen are always in the bush so we know a lot," said David Kruiper, a traditional doctor from the diminutive ethnic group.

Researchers at the South African laboratory isolated the active ingredient in xhoba, dubbing the distilled substance P57. The next twist in the tale is a familiar one in the annals of African history- the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research promptly patented P57 without referencing or crediting the San people who had first brought it to their attention.

Gerald Bodeker of the Global Initiative for Traditional Systems of Health sees these actions as part of a pattern of being exploited (for) land and rights. But such cynical exploitation is not unique to the aboriginal South Africans. It cannot be looked upon in isolation. It is an indigenous peoples human rights issue, said Bodeker, a professor at Oxford University, to the Associated Press.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa and its partners were quick to defend themselves however, claiming that there was no intentional effort to exclude the San from collecting a fair portion of the potentially large revenues.

The Council met with representatives of the San last March to sign a memorandum of understanding which recognized San claims and set a schedule of profit sharing. The gesture was not fully in good faith however, since the Council had already agreed to let British research firm Phytopharm take over the rights to further experiments on xhoba.

Phytopharms foresight and understanding of the overseas market led them to sublease development rights to Pfizer. Richard Dixey, CEO of Phytopharm, told the Associated Press: Its not an exploitation story. I dont think any party was trying to avoid a royalty-sharing agreement. The company released a statement in July announcing that Pfizer would pay up to $32 million in milestone payments as well as royalties on sales of P57.

Phytopharm also reserved the right to develop semi-synthetic versions of the hunger and thirst suppressant, and is allowed to find other partners to help with the marketing and production of the drug. Phytopharm will concentrate it's efforts on the development of semi-synthetic molecules, according to a company press release. With over two years working capital, the company remains well funded to progress this expanded platform. Phytopharm declined to mention what portion, if any, of these royalties would be paid to the San.

While critics like Bodeker continue to point accusatory fingers at the one-sided corporate interest in African medicine, the Bwiti of Cameroon and Gabon continue to welcome outside interest in their prized sylvan secret, the purported miracle drug and alcohol addiction cure known as Iboga.

Iboga properly called Tabernanthe iboga traditionally came in three flavors, though the bright orange flesh of the plant is itself tasteless. It was traditionally used as a mild stimulant by West and Central African warriors and hunters to curb appetite and stay awake, in the same manner that the San use xhoba. In slightly higher dosages, iboga was also reported to be an aphrodisiac, a reputation that fascinated colonial explorers in the 19th century. The last and easily the most important traditional role of iboga was its use as a hallucinogenic sacrament in Bwiti religious ceremonies.

Daniel Pinchbeck, a travel writer wrote a detailed journal of his experience with the plant in 1999: "The iboga trip became a cinematic cyclone, whirling images and ideas at me at high speed. ... Images of ex-lovers came and went, dancing in to the ether." This aspect of iboga use, depending on who you ask, is either the most exciting new treatment for drug addiction or a sham shrub hyped up by hippies and ex-junkies as the ultimate cure.

Dr. Deborah Mash is no one's idea of a hustler or idle aging hippie, but she wholeheartedly supports the claim that the African herb can help heroin and cocaine addicts cure themselves of chemical and psychological dependency. A professor of neurology at the University of Miami School of Medicine, who is also an expert in cellular molecular pharmacology, Dr. Mash first encountered the drug as a skeptic in 1990.

After presenting a paper on the discovery of coca-ethylene, a drug produced by the human body upon the combined ingestion of cocaine and alcohol, she was approached by an African-American audience member. He asked me if I'd heard of something from Africa that could be used to wean people off cocaine and heroin. I rolled my eyes back and said, "Uh huh, thank you very much. Excuse me but I have to talk to some other people about my recent discovery (of coca-ethylene)," recounted Mash in a radio interview with WBAI reporter Paul DeRienzo.

A month later, she chanced upon a lecture by another researcher, Dr. Stan Glick of the Albany Medical College in New York, who had been testing the plant on laboratory rats. Encouragement from another reliable source led her to start asking questions about the mysterious African herb.

Dr. Mash successfully applied for a Schedule 1 license with the Drug Enforcement Agency, the first American researcher to do so, and verified the claims of other scientists who were convinced that iboga could cure drug dependency. Since iboga is an illegal substance in the United States, Dr. Mash created an addiction treatment center in the Caribbean Island of St. Kitts where she treats volunteers who can afford the hefty $10,000 tag.

She is not alone in charging astronomic fees for administering the central African treatment. Howard Lotsof, a former heroin addict often credited with discovering the plant's addiction breaking potential while still a teenager, reportedly charged between $8,000 and $20,000 for a one-week treatment session at his Panamanian clinic.

Eric Taub, another apostle of iboga, once treated addicts on a private boat in international waters, but now charges a $2,200 fee for sessions at his clinics in Italy and Costa Rica.

He claims to have successfully treated over 300 addicts. Neither men hold medical licenses, and the Bwiti communities on the African continent receive nothing in the form of royalty payments for the use of their cure. Lotsof was recently feuding with Dr. Mash, a former associate, regarding the patent rights to the shrub.

Although unlicensed iboga advocates have increasingly come under criticism due to the deaths of some addicts, most recently a 35-year old woman in Germany, there are no plans for larger formal studies by the US government. The National Institute of Health and the National Institute of Drug Abuse have expressed no interest in funding large scale tests of ibogas effects, and Dr. Mash has been unable to raise enough funds to commission her own full-scale study using her Schedule 1 license.

Iboga, and its chemical derivative ibogaine, continue to be administered in offshore clinics by both physicians and laymen, with no acknowledgement of the Twa and Bwiti.

While the San have made some headway on their claims to a portion of the profits from xhoba and P57, iboga continues to grow quietly in the heart of Africa, its dedicated harvesters largely unacknowledged by its wealthy and distant consumers.