With obesity and weight loss cures being of great interest to the world today, hoodia gordonii has been receiving vast amounts of media attention as a natural appetite suppressant. Because of this, most companies marketing health supplements and weight loss remedies have added hoodia gordonii products to their shelves.
Hoodia gordonii is being marketed indiscriminatingly, and many of these supplements do not contain 100% real hoodia gordonii, or else are using a minuscule amount in their herbal mix, but making far fetched claims about its proficiency.
Some facts about hoodia gordonii may help us to make the right choices:
There are many species of hoodia, but only one species – hoodia gordonii has been found to contain an active ingredient that resulted in loss of hunger and thirst.
Hoodia gordonii grows wild in the deserts of Southern Africa. This plant is difficult to cultivate and attempts to grow it in the deserts of America and Mexico have not been successful. Hoodia gordonii is already on the endangered list and access to this plant is through a CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) certificate issued by the proper authorities. As it takes 5 to 7 years for hoodia gordonii to be mature enough to be harvested, one can see that large quantities of this plant are not freely available. During the 1960s, the South African CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research), in partnership with Phytopharm, a British company began a study on hoodia gordonii. The active ingredient in hoodia gordonii, responsible for appetite suppression was isolated and named P57.
Phytopharm, the company responsible for bring hoodia gordonii to the attention of the world is presently in phase II of its five phase clinical trials of hoodia gordonii and has not as yet released any of its own products containing hoodia gordonii to the market. Clinical trials so far indicate that hoodia gordonii has no side effects, but research on hoodia gordonii in conjunction with other herbs and natural stimulants like green tea has not yet commenced. In the meantime, this “natural obesity cure” has caught the attention of the world thanks to extensive media coverage, including a BBC reporter who went out to Southern Africa and personally tried out hoodia gordonii for herself.
Since many natural and herbal cures have been as successful in the powdered form as in the original, most supplements containing hoodia gordonii have used some amount of the powdered supplement or the active ingredient P57 in their products.
It is possible that some companies have not used 100% pure hoodia gordonii in their products, or have even used some other specie of hoodia.
To be completely safe, if you are planning to add hoodia gordonii to your weight loss regime, please do so under the guidance of your physician. When buying hoodia gordonii, please see if the label has a USDA certificate. Hoodia gordonii is imported from Africa and so the label should have a CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) certificate, as well. Also check that the label names the certified laboratory that has tested and authenticated the presence of 100% real hoodia gordonii in the product.