Hoodia gordonii (pronounced HOO-dee-ah) is also called hoodia, xhooba,
khoba, Ghaap, hoodia cactus, and South African desert cactus. Hoodia
gordonii is a metabolism booster, fat burner and energy enhancer.
Hoodia is a cactus that's causing a stir for its ability to suppress
appetite and promote weight loss. 60 Minutes, ABC, and the BBC have all
done stories on hoodia.
Hoodia gordonii can be found in the semi-deserts of South Africa
(Kalahari Desert), Botswana, Namibia, and Angola. Hoodia grows in
clumps of green upright stems and is actually a succulent, not a
cactus.
The Hoodia harvesting takes about 5 years before hoodia's pale purple
flowers appear in the cactus . There are 20 types of hoodia, but only
the hoodia gordonii variety is believed to contain the natural appetite
suppressant used for treatment.
Hoodia was "discovered" recently, the San Bushmen of the Kalahari
desert have been using it for a very long time. The San peoples have
been using the Hoodia gordonii succulent for centuries to stave off
hunger during their long and arduous hunting trips in the harsh South
African wild. They also used hoodia for severe problems such as
abdominal cramps, hemorrhoids, tuberculosis, indigestion, hypertension
and diabetes.
In 1937, a Dutch anthropologist studying the San Bushmen noted that
they used hoodia to suppress appetite. But it wasn't until 1963 when
scientists at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR), South Africa's national laboratory,
http://www.gordoniihoodiapills.com/howitworks.phpbegan studying hoodia.
Initial results were promising -- during experiments lab animals lost
weight after taking hoodia.
The South African scientists, working with a British company named
Phytopharm, isolated the active ingredient in hoodia, a steroidal
glycoside, which they named p57. After getting a patent in 1995, they
licensed p57 to Phytopharm. Phytopharm has spent more than $20 million
on hoodia research.
