Maca (Lepidium meyenii) is in the news again thanks to a report from Associated Press. (There’s a version here, and many others around the place.) The gist of the article is that a US patent on Maca’s libido-enhancing compounds, granted to PureWorld Botanicals in 2001, is not valid. “Peruvian officials called the patent an ’emblematic case’ of biopiracy and are preparing to challenge it in U.S. courts,” the report says. It goes on to examine other cases of biopiracy and the use by pharmaceutical companies of compounds found in nature.