Expert Says Hoodia Industry Needs Scientific Proof That Hoodia Works

May 18th, 2007 by Travis Van Slooten

An expert in the hoodia industry says the main thing the industry needs right now is scientific proof in the form of clinical trials that hoodia gordonii works to suppress appetite. I read about this in a recent article in allAfrica.com I found this article very promising because hopefully it will lead to more clinical trials, something the industry and the consumers desperately need right now.

The article begins by highlighting the three countries where hoodia gordonii is currently found. Those countries are South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana. While that wasn’t exactly news to me, the amount of hoodia plants currently grown in South Africa and Namibia was.

South Africa expects to plant between six and ten million plants for the year 2007, while Namibia has three million plants under cultivation.

In addition, there are 65 registered growers in the Namibia hoodia market alone who form part of the Hoodia Growers Association of Namibia (HOGRAN). The Namibia Ministry of Environment and Tourism has received three applications from companies wanting to manufacture hoodia in Namibia. The names of these companies aren’t being released to the public right now, but I wonder if they are the same three companies listed on my best rated hoodia page.

The main point of the article was about how the hoodia industry needs to put its house in order to take advantage of the high prices being offered on the market right now for hoodia gordonii. According to the article, Rijus Muller, an executive for a South African natural products company, said one of the most important things the industry needs now is scientific backing in the form of clinical trials that prove hoodia gordonii really works at suppressing appetite.

Having scientific proof of the plant’s effectiveness will unlock opportunities of trade.

To that end, Muller said the three countries need to join forces and work together to ensure that the controlling bodies in the USA have scientific proof of the plant. While clinical trials take several months to complete (up to eight months), it will provide a base for the three countries to grow the industry, said Muller.

I couldn’t agree more. I would also add that having more scientific proof will be beneficial to consumers as well.

Most of what we know about the effectiveness of hoodia is anecdotal and that evidence has been mixed at best. As a consumer, it’s difficult to pay $30-$60 for a bottle of hoodia diet pills that you don’t know even works. If there was more scientific proof that authentic hoodia was an effective appetite suppressant, more consumers would be willing to give them a try. It would also give the industry and its product more credibility.

If the hoodia industry does start conducting clinical trials, I hope it does so using hoodia supplements and not raw hoodia gordonii.

Most people aren’t going to have access to the actual hoodia plant. They will only find it in supplement form. It makes sense then to conduct trials on supplements that contain authentic hoodia gordonii instead of the plant itself. At this point any trials would be helpful but hopefully the industry will concentrate on trials using supplements only.