How Hoodia Gordonii Plus Works

Hoodiagordonii (pronounced HOO-dee-ah) is also called hoodia, xhooba, khoba,Ghaap, hoodia cactus, and South African desert cactus. Hoodia is acactus that’s causing a stir for its ability to suppress appetite andpromote weight loss. 60 Minutes, ABC, and the BBC have all done storieson hoodia.

Hoodia gordonii can be found in the semi-deserts of South Africa,Botswana, Namibia, and Angola. Hoodia grows in clumps of green uprightstems and is actually a succulent, not a cactus.

It takes about 5 years before hoodia’s pale purple flowers appearand the cactus can be harvested. Although there are 20 types of hoodia,only the hoodia gordonii variety is believed to contain the naturalappetite suppressant.

Althoughhoodia was "discovered" relatively recently, the San Bushmen of theKalahari desert have been eating it for a very long time. The Bushmen,who live off the land, would cut off part of the hoodia stem and eat itto ward off hunger and thirst during nomadic hunting trips. They alsoused hoodia for severe abdominal cramps, hemorrhoids, tuberculosis,indigestion, hypertension and diabetes.

In 1937, a Dutch anthropologist studying the San Bushmen noted thatthey used hoodia to suppress appetite. But it wasn’t until 1963 whenscientists at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR), South Africa’s national laboratory, began studying hoodia.Initial results were promising — lab animals lost weight after takinghoodia.

TheSouth African scientists, working with a British company namedPhytopharm, isolated the active ingredient in hoodia, a steroidalglycoside, which they named p57. After getting a patent in 1995, theylicensed p57 to Phytopharm. Phytopharm has spent more than $20 millionon hoodia research.