There are some things that you must know before you decide to buy pure hoodia gordonii.

Hoodia gordonii is a succulent plant that grows in the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa and Namibia. For centuries, the San tribes or Bushmen of the Kalahari have used it to suppress hunger and thirst when there was no food available and they had to go on long hunting expeditions. There are many species of hoodia, but only hoodia gordonii works as an appetite suppressant.

In the 1960s, the South African CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) began studying Hoodia Gordonii. Working with a British company called Phytopharm, they isolated an active ingredient in hoodia gordonii – a molecule they named P57, which caused suppression of hunger and thirst. CSIR patented P57 and leased it to Phytopharm, who are presently running clinical trials on hoodia gordonii. Phytopharm is now in partnership with Unilever to create a commercial product in the worldwide fight against obesity.

Since hoodia gordonii was introduced to the public, it has become a huge topic of interest, excitement and hope in our obese and obsessed-with-weight-loss society. Naturally, this has spawned a very hungry market place and all kinds of “hoodia” supplements, herbs, pills, shakes and even lollipops are being sold to unwary customers.

Now, the active molecule P57 has been patented, but the hoodia gordonii plant itself cannot be patented and manufacturers are making and selling all kinds of supplements with some form of “hoodia” in them. No manufacturer can claim to have a “hoodia gordonii extract” in his product unless they want to face a court case, because the extract, P57, has been patented and leased to Phytopharm and its partner, Unilever.  But they can and do use the term “extract” in misleading terms and put it on their products.

“Consumer comparison sites” are thin disguises for unscrupulous manufacturers. The public is asked to compare all kinds of hoodia products, with the hidden manufacturer’s product being the best, of course. Calling their product 100% hoodia gordonii is also misleading. It is the inner flesh of the plant that contains the appetite suppressant extract, and powdering the entire plant – stalks and spiny skin included – reduces the amount of the active ingredient to less than 40%. Many manufacturers give reams of information and chemical analysis, without mentioning the name of the laboratory used.

To be certain that you are buying pure hoodia gordonii, look out for the following signs:

Hoodia Gordonii is imported from South Africa and it is an endangered species. The label must have a CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) certification to show it has been legally imported and is authentic. The label must clearly give the name of the certified laboratory that has tested and analyzed the hoodia gordonii in the product.

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How do you know if what you bought is natural hoodia or not? There have been scams where stuff that was not hoodia was passed off as the real thing to a whole lot of unsuspecting people. In fact, there are reports that over three quarters of the hoodia available are either fake or are not pure hoodia. The problem is, there is no way of being able to tell unless it undergoes laboratory testing.

There are so many sites on the Internet that promote their own brand of hoodia and they usually go with the premise that theirs is good while most of the others are not. However, they cannot tell you how to tell that theirs is superior or the real thing. No hoodia brand has undergone extensive testing to certify that it is in fact the actual ingredient, in the right proportions and that each dose is what it should be. When there have been no safety tests done for an ingredient, how can safety measures be set up? So don’t believe all those absolutely pure hoodia ads – it would be better to go talk to people on forums to see which brand they used that worked for them.

The sad part is, there is no central testing body where a brand can be certified as containing pure hoodia and no adulterants or even worse, no hoodia at all. When people go berserk over a new diet fad, reason usually does not apply. They will still want to try it for themselves. If hoodia really does work, it would be sad if people had the fake stuff and gave up on it saying it does not work. The manufacturers meanwhile will no doubt be laughing all the way to the bank!

Hoodia gordonii from Africa must be imported only with a permit in order that there is no rash cutting down of all the hoodia plants there is the land. However, there are instances of faked certificates which make it a problem. Hoodia plants mature only after five years so care should be taken that there is no wanton destruction of the plants as demand for the product swells from all over the world.

Yet another way that hoodia manufacturers cheat people is by submitting a genuine sample to a testing lab and then packing the capsules with fake or adulterated powder.  Sad to say, when hoodia does not work on some while the results are seen on others, people might feel that they should take it for a longer spell or they might feel that the product does not work on them.

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