Hoodia Gordonii! A strange little cactus in the South African desert, introduced one day to the public in the popular 60 minutes show, suddenly changed the weight loss perception. Everybody is asking about it, everybody wants it and since all major TV networks have talked frantically about it!

Hoodia is actually a succulent and not a cactus. This plant grows in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Angola and although there are about 20 varieties of it only Hoodia Gordonii contain the natural appetite suppressant you heard so much about. It takes no less than 5 years for its purple flower to appear and the plant to be used!

And as often happens , what we found revolutionary is known to man for centuries!! The Bushmen living in the African desert are using the plant since forever treating varies disorders like indigestion, tuberculosis, hypertension and also as an appetite suppressant on their long hunting trips.

We know about Hoodia since about 1937, began to study it in 1963 (South African scientists) and after very promising initial results the African scientists joined forces with a British company, Phytopharm, got into more serious research. $20 milion dollars later they isolated the active ingredient in hoodia : a steroidal glycoside they called p57. Then p57 was patented. In 1998, Pfizer, the world known Viagra owner, sub-licensed the rights to develop p57 in a $21 million dollar deal.

Recently, Phizer returned the rights to hoodia to Phytopharm who is now working with Unilever. Top notch companies working on a top notch product! And now Hoodia can be found in liquid form but also as pills or tea.

The media frenzy started when the 60 minutes team traveled to Africa and tried for themselves Hoodia. Leslie Stahl ate some and lost her desire to eat or drink for an entire day!!! For us, the important thing to know is that Hoodia reduces the daily food intake by suppressing the appetite. Although in animal testing the daily caloric intake was reduced anywhere between 30% and 50% it is believed that the daily calorie intake is diminished for us with about 1000 calories daily.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 at 12:14 pm and is filed under Hoodia Gordonii. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.