A Guide to Hoodia Cactus Plant Extract

You might have surely heard about ‘Hoodia cactus plant extract’ by this time as it has been broadcasted by numerous major media sources, like the ‘BBC’, ‘The Today Show’, ‘CBS’ and much more. Because of this, Hoodia Gordonii products have quickly ascended to become one of the fastest growing segments of the ‘diet supplement market’.

Before choosing a Hoodia product you should know that there are many kinds of Hoodia plant, but only the Hoodia Gordonii type has an astonishing ‘appetite suppressing’ quality. These properties have been known about for centuries by a primitive tribe known as the ‘Sans Bushmen’. During mid 1990s an institute called the C.S.I.R. ‘Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’ was conducting a study of native plants eaten by the ‘Sans Bushmen’. Basically, the study was to see what foods, the ‘Sans Bushmen’ were taking that protected the toxic compounds. When the C.S.I.R. studied Hoodia Gordonii, they found it was not only non-toxic, but also it helped to suppress the appetite of animals it used to feed to.

Hoodia Cactus PlantFinally, the C.S.I.R. isolated the active ingredient responsible for the ‘appetite suppressing’ effects and called it ‘P57′. This is the ‘Hoodia cactus extract’. They then sold the rights of ‘P57′ to a British pharmaceutical company called ‘Phytopharm’. You may be wondering how it can be there are so many Hoodia products on the market if only ‘Phytopharm’ has the rights to ‘P57′. The answer lies in the patent laws. You know that, only ‘Phytopharm’ can extract the active molecule called ‘P57′ from Hoodia Gordonii and use it in their product line. But a whole natural plant – in this case the Hoodia Gordonii plant- cannot be patented. As a result, other companies’ can very well produce supplements or products made from Hoodia Gordonii and sell them legally.

The important thing for consumers right now is to make sure that they are buying a product that contains genuine South African Hoodia Gordonii.

Why is Hoodia such a sought after weight loss supplement?

Hoodia Gordonii is an unambitious little South African desert cactus type plant that has a big future ahead of it. A gift from the native San people who live in the Kalahari Desert in South Africa, this tiny plant the natives’ call “Xhoba” has already began impacting the world of weight loss with its extraordinary hunger stopping traits. What the Aboriginal San Bushmen have known for a long time and the rest of us are merely beginning to realize is that Hoodia has appetite suppressant qualities distinguished by plant scientists and named P57. This P57 active element has been examined, tested and identified to have the power to reduce calorie intake by up to 1,000 calories a day.

So will any South African cactus do when it comes to helping you to stay away from snacks? Indeed not, don’t go to the local florist and buy yourself a desert cactus to eat. Of the succulent and asclepiad genus there are 2,000 species of ascleoiadaceae, divided into 300 genera, half from the succulent category. Hoodia Pseudolithos and Trichocaulon are members of the Trichocaulon sub-section from the Kalahari Desert region of S. Africa that touches Angola, Botswana and Namibia. Hoodia Gordonii is the name of the cactus you will want to get but don’t plan on taking a outing to the South Africa and getting some Hoodia cacti for yourself; the Hoodia desert cactus are under strict control by the S. African government. It is considered an endangered plant and only Hoodia cactus farmers with certification may produce and sell the Hoodia.

Can Hoodia affect the world’s obesity problem and help the planet be a slimmer place? Business organizations including, Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), Phytopharm, Pfizer and most recently Slim Fast all believe so. All of these companies have banked on Hoodia’s success and together have invested millions of dollars, wanting to corner the marketplace on weight loss. Looking at Hoodia’s journey from Xhoba, plant of The San Bushmen to being today’s miracle plant for weight loss we need to first look at where Hoodia’s been over the past thirty plus years. The greatest amount of time, CSIR analyzed Hoodia to isolate the molecule p57, once they eventually obtained it; they then sold the rights of p57 to Phytopharm. In 1998 The Phytopharm Company leased marketing rights to Pfizer, who invested thirty-two million only to subsequently drop out of the scene because p57 was too expensive to synthesize as a pill. Pfizer’s situation has now been taken over by The Unilever Corporation, the parent company of Slim Fast. Slim Fast at present plans on delivering a Hoodia weight loss supplement to nutritional stores in a couple years.

Almost a year ago, on November of 2004, the Hoodia plant contracted big media coverage when CBS’s Sixty Minutes did a show on Hoodia’s appetite suppressant qualities. With the 60 minute TV exposure, Hoodia was now wanted plant by dieters all-round the globe. People having a hard time staying on their diets desired Hoodia now, not in a couple of years, the secret was out and Hoodia was becoming an indispensable plant. I’m sure after that 60 minutes program was aired, numbers of dieters looked into moving to the Kalahari Desert and making themselves a tiny Hoodia garden of their very own. Luckily, as it is today there isn’t a reason to go to that extent, where there is a consumer need; there are many businesses happy to fill that request. There were a few businesses that were informed of Hoodia before the news coverage broke and were in the right place at the right time. It didn’t take long though for numerous other organizations to create associations with South African Hoodia Gordonii growers and get Hoodia supplements into stores.

Nowadays there are numerous brands marketing both Hoodia powder form and extracts; how long will the Hoodia plant supply last is the question on dieter’s minds right now. The Hoodia Gordonii succulent is a very hard plant to grow; the plants need very much care and management with irrigating, temperature and sunshine. Where it stands today there are only a couple of Hoodia harvesting centers in the South Africa and the Hoodia plant takes two to three years before it’s ready to be exported. Taking this into account, the multi-million dollar question is, for how many months can the Hoodia succulent plant export continue? Because of this situation buyers should be aware if the Hoodia they are getting has been independently tested and certified to be pure Hoodia Gordonii from South Africa. There are companies out there taking advantage of the great demand and interest in Hoodia and supplying a low quality product. For more information about Hoodia go to http://hoodiagordonii.totalink.com

Can Hoodia Gordonii Slim you Down?

hoodia gordonii is a very interesting ?ancient plant’ that has been used for thousands of years but just beginning to catch on to the ?Western world hoodia’ for weight-loss. The huge media coverage has led to a flourishing industry in hoodia gordonii based products, whether they be ?Pure hoodia’ or hoodia as just one of the ingredients of an already existing weight loss product.

But before you rush off to buy a hoodia supplement you should understand a bit about what studies have shown so far with respect to hoodia gordonii for weight loss. Knowing these facts will help you navigate through hoodia product and buy the best product to avoid the fake ones.

Know The Facts About hoodia:i) There are a variety of hoodia plants. Only the hoodia gordonii class contains an active element that helps suppress your appetite. As the demand for hoodia gordonii is far surpassing the supply, some hoodia sellers are using unreliable but advertising their products as Pure hoodia even though it might have been made from a different hoodia plant than the hoodia gordonii.

ii) Of course many companies claim their hoodia extract can slim you down, the only thing that has been proven so far is the ?P57 molecule’. ?P57′ is the ?active ingredient’ in hoodia gordonii that was isolated. It was licensed to a company named ?Phytopharm’ that conducted a study using it. It was found that morbidly obese people using ?P57′ ate on average of 1k less calories per day. Obviously this is the reason why so many people think hoodia for weight-loss is the new rescuer for the obese and people looking to slim down.

iii) What is most important to keep in mind is that as long as the hoodia products are extracted from real hoodia gordonii, it should also contain some of the active ingredient in it. Study shows that only the core of the plant has the active ingredient.

So can hoodia slim you down? And the answer is a big Yes! But only if you buy a real product and avoid the false ones.

For more information visit: PrimeHerbal

Hoodia Diet Pill: Hoodia Gordonii Or Voodoo To You And I

For every diet pill fad there are millions of disappointed users that have been cheated by the guru charlatan with the latest wonder working diet wiz pill. With the reflex flinch of one of those victims we poke the stick of revelation at hoodia.
Walking the Kalahari Desert doesn’t seem the obvious place to start a diet when thirst is foremost on the mind. Native San Bushmen featured in the movie “The Gods Must Be Crazy” live and thrive here for real. Thousands of years ago their ancestors discovered the magical properties of a specific cactus that thwarts hunger pains. 10, 000 times stronger than glucose, hoodia fools the brain into thinking you are full and not hungry.
This all-natural appetite suppressant is made from pure hoodia cactus pulp and seeds. Hoodia gordonii is the specific cactus that has the appetite suppressant qualities. Hoodia can be taken as a pill, powder or a tea. Obesity has never had a foe of this gigantic magnitude, than that of the natural herbal hoodia diet pill!
The secreted cactus, called Xhoba by San Bushmen, collection sat in a laboratory for 30 years after it was discovered before its’ properties were analyzed. The mega-behemoth pharmaceutical company, Pfizer (producers of Viagra) introduced “hoodia” to the media while they were in preliminary studies. Pfizer terminated all research on hoodia when terms could not be agreed upon with Phytopharm that owned the patent. Phytopharm bought up the rights from the San Bushmen of Kalahari to harvest, test and produce a laboratory drug called P57. This synthetic Hoodia has the same active ingredient as the real cactus and contains the previously unknown molecule named P57. Phytopharm decided to sell the use of their patent to Unilever, which owns Slim Fast. The sale was for 21 million U.S. plus royalties, that remain undisclosed. The hoodia laced P 57 products by Slim Fast may show up on the market in 2007.
The hoodia works in this way: In your mid-brain called the hypothalamus; you have glucose sensing nerve cells. As you ingest food, your blood sugar rises, and the glucose sensing nerve cells activate, sending an electrical signal that we recognize as, “now I am full”.
Hoodia has been tested and proven to work overwhelmingly against the double-blind placebo check. Individuals taking pure hoodia extract diet pills ate 1000 fewer calories than those in the placebo check. 3500 calories = 1 pound of body fat. So every three and a half days you would lose a pound of fat by taking Hoodia.
There are natural products for sale that are made from real hoodia pulp that are from hoodia farms or naturally collected cactus. The hoodia plant may take up to six years to grow to harvestable size from seed. In 2005 CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna) decided to include hoodia gordonii in their list of protected cactus from South Africa and a permit is required to export this cactus from its’ homeland. It is estimated that by 2010 there will be a shortage of this product as demand outgrows the supply.
Although there are no registered side effects from taking hoodia, the native San Bushmen claim hoodia is also an aphrodisiac. The most heralded use of hoodia by the African bushman is an appetite suppressant, but they also use it as a thirst quencher. The San consume hoodia to end abdominal cramps, apply Xhoba for hemorrhoids, and drink hoodia tea for indigestion. Hypertension and diabetes are hoodia treated by the San Bushman, as well as tuberculosis.
Now that we know it works, will they let us have it?

Making Effective Hoodia Supplements

Hoodia Gordonii is a succulent plant from the Kalahari Desert that is revolutionizing the diet industry with its almost miracle appetite suppressant abilities with no side effects. It has captured the imagination (and the wallets) of the diet manufacturers who are all keen to leverage its properties in their products.

But how do you make an effective Hoodia supplement?

Firstly you need to have the finest Hoodia Gordonii plants. As the British company Phytopharm owns the patent to the P57 extract from Hoodia (which is the appetite suppressant molecule) they have licensed this to some global corporations.
As such, they have bought up much of the supply of Hoodia Gordonii and are growing in massive government run farms in the Kalahari Desert.

Hoodia Gordonii is also a protected plant, which means that unless you have a government issued permit you cannot export it. The Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) issues very few permits.

Secondly the heart of the Hoodia Gordonii plant should be used. The Bushmen of the Kalahari do not eat the skin or the spines of the Hoodia plant and the extracts you take shouldn’t include them. Extracting the pure herbal extract is a very expensive process. It takes about two thousand pounds of Hoodia Gordonii plants to make just one hundred pounds of powder. It is expensive, but produces a very effective supplement.

Thirdly, there are the ethical business practices to consider. The Western drug companies are keen to squeeze every penny of profit out of everything they produce – particularly as many of their products come to nothing. Sadly, this is often at the expense of the indigenous tribes and their rights. As the only way to legally get Hoodia Gordonii from the Kalahari Desert is through the government run farms, it’s very easy for the government to track which companies much pay royalties. If the company supplying your Hoodia supplement is not paying any royalties to the Bushmen then they are not using genuine Hoodia Gordonii.

You also need to ensure that there is quality control in place. Many companies may be tempted to dilute the pure extract with a filler substance to make the pure extract last longer and increase the profits.

The best way to ensure the extract works and does what it says it will is to test it yourself. Use the supplement and notice the difference, if it isn’t working then stop taking it.

Due to the cost of synthesizing the Hoodia Gordonii appetite suppressant there is little chance of finding it in pill form – at the moment. However, liquid extracts are available and you can buy these from a number of reputable suppliers online. The nice thing about a liquid extract is that it is absorbed by the body quicker, is more natural, and can be mixed with juice to make sure it tastes good.