Nigella sativa — more commonly known as fennel flower — has been used as a cure-all remedy for over a thousand years. It treats everything from vomiting to fevers to skin diseases, and has been widely available in impoverished communities across the Middle East and Asia.
But now Nestlé is claiming to own it, and filing patent claims around the world to try and take control over the natural cure of the fennel flower and turn it into a costly private drug.
Tell Nestlé: Stop trying to patent a natural cure
In a paper published last year, Nestlé scientists claimed to “discover” what much of the world has known for millennia: that nigella sativa extract could be used for “nutritional interventions in humans with food allergy”.
But instead of creating an artificial substitute, or fighting to make sure the remedy was widely available, Nestlé is attempting to create a nigella sativa monopoly and gain the ability to sue anyone using it without Nestlé’s permission. Nestlé has filed patent applications — which are currently pending — around the world.
Prior to Nestlé’s outlandish patent claim, researchers in developing nations such as Egypt and Pakistan had already published studies on the same curative powers Nestlé is claiming as its own. And Nestlé has done this before — in 2011, it tried to claim credit for using cow’s milk as a laxative, despite the fact that such knowledge had been in Indian medical texts for a thousand years.
Don’t let Nestlé turn a traditional cure into a corporate cash cow.
We know Nestlé doesn’t care about ethics. After all, this is the corporation that poisoned its milk with melamine, purchases cocoa from plantations that use child slave labor, and launched a breast milk substitute campaign in the 1970s that contributed to the suffering and deaths of thousands of babies from poor communities.
But we also know that Nestlé is sensitive to public outcry, and that it’s been beaten at the patent game before. If we act fast, we can put enough pressure on Nestlé to get it to drop its patent plans before they harm anyone — but if we want any chance at affecting Nestlé’s decision, we have to speak out now!
Thanks
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It would be one thing if they actually created it. But they are implying that as well. Shame on them.
yisraela
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Have a look at the link for “Dear Kitty. Some blog” above Yisraela.
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Hello,
I would like to add your post to my Scoop.it newsletter (Nature Conservation & Science Fiction: #EcoSciFi), but it would be best to have a picture. You could add one to your post. Use a link, not the actual picture. Here is a good one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nsativa001Wien.jpg.
I appreciate your posts.
Thank you.
Garry
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Thank you for the suggestion and the link Garry. Good idea. I have updated the post accordingly.
Ronnie.
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Ronnie, you can see the scoop here: http://www.scoop.it/t/ecoscifi.
Thank you.
Garry
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