When fully grown, the plant resembles something from some science-fiction creation: a squat succulent with thick, spiky arms, purple fleshy petals and seedpods like rhino horns. Hoodia gordonii is no beauty, but this humble plant is Africa’s latest cash crop, priced almost like a narcotic at $40 an ounce.

The plant, which grows wild in the Kalahari Desert in Africa, was once used by indigenous tribes to suppress hunger and thirst while hunting.

Now, it’s such a darling of the international dieting industry that googling the word calls up around 14 million responses. The resulting demand is so hot, wild supplies have been severely compromised, smuggling is rife, and farmers in southern Africa are trying to cash in.

“You start doing the sums; it’s too good to be true,” hoodia farmer Dougal Bassingthwaighte said.

With international giant Unilever licensed to commercialize hoodia and international demand far outstripping supply, there’s a mad race on to get plants to the market.

Bassingthwaighte, 65, who is farming hoodia with his son, Kirk, has 130,000 seedlings being planted out from his nursery, where they begin as tiny green sprouts, to his fields. In about two years, when he plans to harvest them, each is likely to weigh about four pounds. He hopes to have a million plants next year.

But the explosion of interest has put enormous pressure on an embryonic market that could be a boon for Africans if it could grow at a natural and sustainable pace.

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