When news of hoodia gordonii, the new “miracle” cure for the disease of obesity started making the rounds, CBS, an American TV Channel sent their reporter Lesley Stahl to South Africa to film a documentary on hoodia gordonii for their show “60 Minutes”.
Hoodia gordonii is a succulent plant that grows wild in the deserts of Southern Africa. The San tribes – the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert – have eaten it for centuries to suppress hunger and thirst when food stocks were low. The Bushmen ate it before embarking on long hunting expeditions. The South African government started studying hoodia gordonii in the 1960s. With the help of the British company, Phytopharm, they took 30 years to isolate the active ingredient in hoodia gordonii, which they patented and then licensed to Phytopharm.
Phytopharm took on Pfizer as a partner and spent millions of dollars on researching the active ingredient in hoodia gordonii, but it proved too difficult and expensive to synthesize a large enough quantity to market. Without being able to market hoodia gordonii as a “diet pill”, Pfizer dropped out of the partnership. Phytopharm has grown hoodia gordonii on 100s of acres of plantation in Southern Africa. Once their clinical trials are complete, they plan to sell hoodia gordonii in its natural form in diet shakes, bars and as meal replacement products on the market.
What CBS did not mention, but the Phytopharm website does, is that wild hoodia gordonii is an endangered species and protected by conservation law. No wild hoodia gordonii can be exported without a certificate from CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). So many of the “hoodia” products on the market today, become a little suspect. Wild hoodia gordonii cannot be harvested legally and Phytopharm are not selling or marketing any hoodia gordonii until their clinical trials are complete. Also, there are many varieties of hoodia plants, but it is only the hoodia gordonii plant that has the active ingredient that suppresses hunger.
It is possible that some of the products being marketed as “hoodia” are not hoodia gordonii in fact, and so, are naturally not going to be effective as appetite suppressants. It is possible that products claiming to be wild hoodia gordonii are being exported illegally. This also means that the San tribespeople are not benefiting from the royalties that are their right from the sale of hoodia gordonii.
Authentic hoodia gordonii products should carry a certificate from CITES, as well as a proper analysis from a certified laboratory. On the other hand, you can wait for Phytopharm to begin marketing their products. They promise that it will be safe, properly certified and will taste good as well.