Sun flowers

Have you ever wondered what exactly is in your suntan cream? Not that we've had much call for it this summer, but reading the back of the bottle reveals all sorts of interesting secrets. Although you need a certain amount of chemicals to protect you from the sun - titanium dioxide in particular - there's also a remarkable amount of protective flower power. It's a clear reminder that when it comes to suntan creams, companies will often plump for old-fashioned botanic remedies.

A quick glance at Dr Hauschka aftersun reveals a bottle full of floral goodness with rosehips, quince seeds and shea butter. Shea butter is a favourite lotion ingredient, but what exactly is a shea? You start with a West African tree called the Karite, and the butter is produced by taking the fruit and boiling them: providing income for women living in rural African villages.

Its cinnamic acid definitely protects you against the sun. (Ghanian women also swear by it to protect their skin against harsh winds blowing off the Sahara.) However, the smell is a bit odd: fragrance lovers will prefer cocoa butter, another tropical nut oil that turns up in suntan cream because of its delicious smell - like you've been finely dusted with chocolate.

Aloe vera is the oldest of the sun-tonic plants; its medical properties havebeen recognised sinceat least the time of Alexander the Great, who senthome for some when his invadingarmy were threatenedwith sunstroke on the march into India. Alexander's eagle- eyed herbalists had noticed that the aloe leaf contains a soothing watery gel that over the centuries has garnered great respect.

Aloe vera is a common plant in the South of France, and on my last Riviera holiday we spent a happy half hour cutting the leaves and applying the wet gel from inside them onto our slightly toasted arms. But you need to know your aloes; some are deeply poisonous. Aloe vera is also the only member of the genus not to be listed on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) index, which prevents international movement of species seriously under threat. The problem for many aloes is their incredible rarity and hilarious blooms: a combination that is a red flag to obsessive collectors, who've hunted certain members of the family into near extinction.

The newest plant on the lips of Britain's beach-ready minority is Hoodia, the diet supplement that's supposedly going to get you to bikini weight before you leave our sodden soil. Janet Marinelli from Brooklyn Botanic Garden explains: "In 1937, a Dutch anthropologist studying the San bushmen

of the Kalahari desert noticed that they chewed the stems of hoodia before and during their nomadic hunts. Hoodia has an appetite- suppressing effect, and the bushmen didn't feel hungry."

Pfizer, the company which brought us Viagra, soon caught on and bought the patent, but then had great trouble synthesising the active ingredient. Undaunted, the San bush people won the right to collect hoodia and sell it on to nutritional supplement companies. Hoodia populations aren't all that big, and prices have risen from about $13 a kilo to $250 a kilo in the period since the plant's properties became known. Hoodia is now what's known as a "spam special", causing almost as many unwanted emails as Pfizer's production-line mainstay.

There are good reasons why tropical and desert plants protect us from the sun. These plants have evolved to keep themselves going in hot conditions - the palms contain oils and the aloes liquids which can act as a reservoir for the plant or its seeds if conditions turn really hard.

But if we are going to use the resources of these hard-pressed places for something as superficial as our suntan, let's do it as well as we can. Look for indications that a fair price is going to producers and if you're tempted by the idea of a Hoodia diet, check the royalties are channelled back to the San, who probably think, possibly rightly, that we are all crazy.

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