Curbing hunger? Alimentary,my dear

• Published date: 01 October 2022

The team knew from history that hunters in the Kalahari Desert would chew a type of cactus to suppress their hunger. And there were other stories, of people chewing bitter berries during times of famine

What if, Walker’s team pondered, they could find a natural plant extract in New Zealand that would not only curb appetite but help weight loss? Their aim was to control appetite by sending “bitter” signals to taste buds down in the gastrointestinal tract.

Backed by a $20 million grant from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) in 2010, they set to work researching “foods for appetite control”. The result, after testing more than 1000 different plant extracts, is Amarasate, developed from a type of hop grown only in New Zealand.

Enter Sarah Kennedy, the CEO of natural appetite suppressant Calocurb which has the exclusive international rights to the extract, paying a licence fee to Food & Plant Research. Her company is looking for a $5m capital raise with the aim of propelling Calocurb to the next level — recognition as a natural and clinically proven supplement that helps people lose weight without stringent diets. Around $1.5m of the raise will be spent on a clinical trial to prove just that.

The rest will be spent to market Calocurb in the lucrative US supplements market, with an aim of growing revenue to more than $100m in the next five years.

Clinical trials done by Plant & Food in 2019 and 2022 already proved Amarasate curbs appetite and calorie intake.

The second trial, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in January, showed that Amarasate caused the release of three gastric hormones, most importantly GLP-1, designed to tell humans: you are full and now it’s time to stop eating. This next trial, which will take around 18 months to complete, is to prove that action also leads to weight loss.

Calocurb is already available in New Zealand, Australia and the US, and the company has sold 65,000 bottles to date. But armed with clinical evidence of weight loss, Kennedy aims to go up against big pharma in a crowded market, full of “psycho science and mistrust”.

There’s little wonder the market is so competitive. The weight management industry is currently worth more than $87billion in the US, with pharmaceutical and supplement companies grappling for a share. By 2032, the US market alone is expected to be worth more than $435b; and more than $1262b globally.

And there’s little doubt it will continue to be a growing...