Hoodia Gordonii Cactus

Deep inside the African Kalahari desert, grows an ugly cactus called the Hoodia. It thrives in extremely high temperatures, and takes years to mature. It has the texture of cucumbers, even the taste is slightly bitter. The San Bushmen of the Kalahari, one of the world's oldest and most primitive tribes, have been eating the Hoodia for thousands of years, to stave off hunger during long hunting trips.

When South African scientists were testing it to determine how it helped the Bushmen, they discovered the plant contained what they called “P57”, a substance that inhibited hunger and thirst by affecting the hypothalamus, limiting its ability to detect glucose sugar. Although blood sugar still goes up when you eat, it isn't detected, making the person feel full.

As 17% of men and 21% of women are obese, while 46% of men and 32% of women are overweight (according to the British Heart Foundation), the marketing potential for the appetite-suppressing P57 has a lot of marketing potential. Better yet, as it's not a stimulant like Ephedra or Phenfen, there are no side effects, outside of needing to make sure that you drink every so often.

The San strung along the edge of the Kalahari will become overnight millionaires on royalties negotiated by their South African lawyer Roger Chennells. And they will need all the help they can to secure the money. Currently, many Bushmen smoke large quantities of marijuana, suffer from alcoholism, and have neither possessions nor any sense of the value of money. However, as the supply begins to match the demand, the value of those royalties can only increase.

Hoodia's major disadvantage when it comes to being farmed is that it can only be raised in the Kalahari Desert, and simply can't be farmed anywhere else. Although there are other species of hoodia that are more common, there is only one species that has P57, and it takes four or more years to mature; until that point is reached, there isn't enough P57 in the hoodia picked.  Currently South Africa holds a monopoly on hoodia, even though raiders from Namibia do come in and grab hoodia every so often. Although harvesting will increase, this year's harvest was a mere fifty tons.

Hoodia is poised to become the next big things in diet supplements. It is just a matter of supply meeting demand.