Prostate Medical Demand Strips Curative Trees
3/13/98
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Title: Prostate Medical Demand Strips Curative Trees
Source: The Environment News Service
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 3/13/98
Byline: Keya Acharya
BANGALORE, India, March 13, 1998 (ENS) - An African evergreen tree,
the bark of which is used to successfully treat prostate disease in
Europe, is disappearing due to increasing demands from pharmaceutical
companies.
Prunus africana, a tree found only in mountainous regions of Africa -
mainly in Congo, Kenya, Tanzania and Madagascar - is threatened by
unsustainable demand for its bark from western pharmaceutical
companies, Dr. Anthony Cunningham, Regional Coordinator of World
Wildlife Fund-Africa told a recent international conference on
medicinal plants here.
The tree's survival is perilous because of the various biogeographic
conditions of each area, which makes the tree in Madagascar differ
from the same species of tree in Cameroon.
Prunus africana, also known as Pygeum africanum, is used in the
treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), a disease that causes
swelling of the prostate gland and consequent difficulty in passing
urine, ailments suffered by 60 percent of older men.
WWF-Africa documented the use of Prunus Africanus and the impact of
this use on the survival of the tree and the local ecology in Cameroon
in 1994. Researchers found the tree to be severely threatened due to
unsustainable debarking.
Though the bark is mature only when the tree is full grown, demand is
so high that even young trees are now being debarked.
A 1997 report by the World Bank's Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research estimated the trade in Pygeum at US$150 million
per year. "Its overexploitation in its natural African ecosystem is
causing concern for wildlife in the zone where it grows. Its
domestication could bring economic, social and environmental benefits
in the tropics. At present, the drug is not synthesized industrially."
Prunus Africanus is used widely by 14 western pharmaceutical concerns
and included in several herbal mixtures sold in the United States such
as "Male Balance," "Male-40," "ProstaTonic," and "Progen."
The two largest consumers of Prunus Africanus are the French company,
Groupe Fourmier, with the brand name "Tadenan" and Inverni della Beffa
of Italy. Another company, Indena Spa uses the brand name "Pigenil."
The bark contains three groups of active constituents: phytosterols
(including beta-sitosterol), pentacyclic triterpenoids (including
ursolic and oleaic acids) and ferulic esters of long-chain fatty
alcohols (including ferulic esters of docosanol and tetracosanol).
The European medical community uses Pygeum africanum, as a safe,
natural remedy for BPH that is largely unknown in the United States.
The tribes of Natal, South Africa have long used the brown bark as a
cure for bladder pains and urinary difficulty. Studies indicate that
pygeum reduces the symptoms of BPH, postponing the need for more
powerful drugs or surgery. However, most American urologists are
unaware pygeum even exists.
Current trade export of the bark from Africa is 3,200 to 4,900 metric
tonnes annually, a figure which has increased dramatically from ten
metric tonnes in 1976. The main bulk of this export is from Cameroon,
with smaller quantities from Tanzania, Congo and Kenya. All the bark
is shipped to Europe.
With the exception of 600 metric tonnes exported from Madagascar in
1994, and possibly the 100 metric tonnes of bark offered for sale by
the American company, Globex International in October 1996, all bark
harvested in Cameroon is processed and exported by Plantecam, the
company owned by Groupe Fourmier in Cameroon.
Prices for the bark are high, currently selling at US$2,000 per tonne
of bark or $1,000 per kilogram of extract.
The retail price for thirty 50 milligram capsules of "Tadenan" is the
equivalent of US$20.70. Another brand, "Prostatonin" from a Swiss
concern sells at $25.30 per 30 capsules of 25 milligrams each.
The price paid to collectors in Cameroon is negligible, Dr. Cunningham
says. Bark harvesters are paid an average of US$.70 per kilogram.
Middlemen who buy from the harvesters get paid a profit of about
US$.26 cents per kilogram.
Dr. Uwe Schippmann, chairman of the Medicinal Plants section of the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), told
ENS that WWF-Africa and ICRAF, an conservation group in Nairobi,
Kenya, have lobbied enough support to have the Prunus Africanus
included on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species (CITES), the international agreement that regulates
and monitors trade in endangered species. Appendix II status allows
limited, monitored trade. But in spite of its listed status, Prunus
Africanus continues to be sold to a growing market.
Some cultivated sustainable harvesting has been started in Cameroon,
but Dr. Cunningham warns, "Unless developing countries are enabled to
effectively implement CITES regulations, and industry applies itself
to use sustainable and cultivalted harvesting, this tree will remain
in peril."
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