Hoodia gordonii is a succulent plant that grows in the Kalahari Desert of Southern Africa. It is found growing wild in Namibia, Angola, Botswana and parts of South Africa. Many species of hoodia plants are found growing throughout Africa – however, only hoodia gordonii causes suppression of appetite and it grows only in Southern Africa. Hoodia gordonii appears in the desert after summer or winter rainfall; it grows upright in clumps and can attain over 6 feet in height, needing over 50 degrees of heat to survive. It takes many years to mature, and it is very difficult to cultivate.
Hoodia gordonii has been used by the native tribes of the Kalahari Desert, the San tribes, as an appetite suppressant for centuries, when food was scarce or before embarking on long hunting expeditions. Other tribes in Southern Africa also have records of using hoodia gordonii as a food supplement, as medicine and in various tribal rituals.
Working with the South African government, a British company called Phytopharm has been studying hoodia gordonii since the 1960s, and in the 1990s, they isolated an active ingredient, a molecule they named P57, which was patented by the South African government. The government sold the license for P57 to Phytopharm. The hypothalamus is a tiny region of the brain that monitors hunger, thirst and blood sugar levels. P57, being thousands of times more active than the glucose molecule, fools the hypothalamus into sending messages that the stomach is full when no other food has been taken.
Phytopharm took on the giant pharmaceutical company Pfizer as a partner and they spent millions in trying to manufacture and synthesize enough P57, to use in diet pills. This was not successful, and Pfizer withdrew from the partnership. Phytopharm has now taken on Unilever as a partner. Unilever already produces Slim Fast and has a turnover of over a billion dollars annually, a figure they hope to add to significantly once they are able to integrate P57 into their slimming products. Phytopharm has also planted hoodia gordonii in hundreds of acres in Southern Africa, trying to cultivate it on a massive scale. If they are successful, they plan to use the plant itself in slimming products.
The exciting promise of weight loss that hoodia gordonii holds has attracted all kinds of companies to it, and they are already marketing and selling all kinds of Hoodia products, using Phytopharm’s research to attract customers. Of course, as hoodia gordonii is protected by conservation law and licensed legally only to Phytopharm, it would be prudent to thoroughly check out the ingredients and where they come from, before trying out any slimming products containing “hoodia”. Do remember that there are many species of hoodia growing all over Africa, but it is only hoodia gordonii that suppresses appetite.
Once Phytopharm’s clinical trials are complete and they are ready to launch safe and certified hoodia gordonii slimming products into this hungry-but desperate-to-lose-weight market, it is estimated that hoodia gordonii will probably be the best selling product in the world.