About Hoodia

Found only in South Africa , the hoodia gordonii is the only species of hoodia plant that is believed to contain a natural appetite suppressant. For those who want to do more individual research on the hoodia plant, visit   www.plantzafrica.com . There you'll find information on hoodia plants, cultivation and harvesting requirements, and as well as a complete listing of additional resources and information.

The primary research on the effects of hoodia on the appetite was done at Brown Medical School by D.B. MacLean and L.G. Luo. Their experiments involved injecting purified p57 from the hoodia gordonii plant directly into the brains of laboratory rats. These experiments form the basis of most hoodia reference material. If you would like to read the complete abstract look for the PubMed service online at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/ . This online resource is brought to you by the National Library of Medicine and the National Institute of Health.

It is generally believed that the study of hoodia began in the 1960's by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. However, it wasn't until the mid-nineties that the p57 molecule, the molecule believed to give hoodia gordonii it's appetite suppressing properties, was identified.

The significance of the finding of p57 and its potential impacts did not go unnoticed. When National Geographic reported on the find, their article focused on the potential economic impact the new discovery would have on the local South African economy in the area where the plant is found.

Today, clinical research on hoodia is performed primarily by the pharmaceutical company Phytopharm. After partnering with Unilever, most notable for its ownership of the well known Slim Fast line of weight control products, Phytopharm announced that going to move into a new phase of testing hoodia gordonii's effectiveness on human volunteers.

In addition to acting as an appetite suppressant, some supplement manufacturers have also claimed that hoodia might also have the added weight loss benefit of increasing metabolism. However, this claim has not been substantiated. Also open to speculation is exactly how much hoodia gordonii is needed to achieve the desired appetite suppressing results.