Hoodia the Allnatural Appetite Suppressant

It is difficult to trace out exactly since when the tribes of the Kalahari Desert in South Africa have been using the stem of the Hoodia Gordonii plant to ward off their hunger. Hoodia grows wild in Africa where a Dutch anthropologist was the first European to describe the plant. In 1937, he was studying the habits of nomadic hunters and noted that they often ate the plant when food and water were scarce, or when on a hunt. He mentioned that the hoodia gordonii plant was not particularly tasty, but it had the desirable effect of reducing appetite and thirst and thereby could be used to produce an effective drug to reduce weight.

It was not until 1963 that an organized study of hoodia gordonii was performed. Scientists at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa reported that laboratory animals which were fed on the hoodia plant lost weight. Sometime in the 1990’s the scientists in South Africa were able to attract the interest of a British pharmaceutical company, Phytopharm. Eventually, through a joint effort, they were able to isolate and identify the active molecule in hoodia gordonii and named it ‘P57’. In 1995, Phytopharm licensed and patented ‘P57’. Phytopharm reportedly spent more than $20 million dollars researching the effects of the ‘P57’ molecule found in the hoodia gordonii plant before they sub-licensed the rights to Pfizer in 1998. Phytopharm is now working with Unilever and has established hoodia gordonii plantations in South Africa.

There several problems growers have when farming hoodia. The biggest production problem is the limited availability of hoodia gordonii Also, the gordonii plant requires extremely high temperatures to flourish and it takes four to five years to mature. A legal issue that must be dealt with is that the Kalahari bushmen must be paid royalties for the use of the plant. Also, Phytopharm owns the patent on P57, so that any non-herbal use (that is, extracting the P57 itself) must go through Phytopharm.

Experts make the following recommendations for overweight people interested in trying gordonii supplements. The user may experience the appetite suppressing effectsquickly, even following the first dose, but some people do not notice a significant difference until after taking the supplement for several weeks. In addition, the recommended dosage may need to be adjusted up or down depending on  the individual. There are no adverse side effects associated with hoodia gordonii.

It is interesting that an ancient secret is of so much use to us in the modern age!