The Facts about Hoodia Gordonii

You may have heard of Hoodia Gordonii, but what do you really know about it? There are thirteen types of Hoodia. Only one, Hoodia Grodonii, is known to contain the steroidal glycoside, named p57, which is believed to suppress appetites. Hoodia is known by other names that include: Hoodia cactus, Ghaap, Hoodia, South African desert cactus, ikhoba and xhooba. Hoodia is a succulent plant that looks like a cactus and grows in the semi-deserts of Angola, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. Hoodia grows in clumps of green upright stems. It requires about five years before the plants purple flowers to appear and the plant can be harvested.

There is a long history to Hoodia. A Dutch anthropologist began to study the San Bushmen in 1937. The noticed that they used Hoodia Gordonii to suppress their appetites. The South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research began studying Hoodia in 1963. The made claims that after lab animals were given Hoodia they lost weight. Phytopharm, a British company, began to work with the South African scientists and they are the ones that helped to isolate the molecule steroidal glycoside that they named p57. In 1995 they obtained a patent and spent more than twenty million on researching Hoodia.

In 1998, Pfizer obtained the rights from Phytopharm to develop p57 for twenty-one million dollars. Pfizer eventually returned the right back to Phytopharm who is currently working with Unilever.

The hype surrounding Hoodia began after Leslie Stahl of “60 Minutes” traveled to Africa to try Hoodia. She hired local Bushman to travel into the desert to find Hoodia. Ms. Stahl ate is and said that it had a ‘cucumbery texture but was not that bad’. She indicated that she did not have the desire to drink or eat for an entire day. She did not report any side effects including heart palpitations or indigestion.

With all the hype there are no published controlled trials in humans that indicate that Hoodia is effective or safe in a pill form. The September 2004 issue of Brain Research states that rat brains were injected with p57. They said that the levels of ATP were altered after the injections. ATP in an energy molecule that may affect hunger. The animals injected with p57 ate less than rats given the placebo injections. This does not prove that oral consumption actually will suppress the appetite in a human. Phytopharm cites a study involving eighteen human volunteers that were said to eat one thousand calories less per day after taking Hoodia compared to the placebo group. This study was never published or subjected to a peer-review process.

While there are tempting indications that Hoodia has potential to be effective in helping individual’s loose weight, the jury is still out. There is no clear evidence that Hoodia outside of its natural form has any effect. So, take at your own risk. You may be spending money on a product that has no real effects.