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What you need to know about hoodia gordoniiHoodia gordonii (obvious HOO-dee-ah) can also be called hoodia, xhooba,!khoba, Ghaap, hoodia cactus, and South African desert cactus.

Hoodia is just a cactus that's creating a stir for the power to promote weight loss and control appetite. 60 Minutes, ABC, and the BBC have all performed stories on hoodia. Hoodia comes in capsule, liquid, or tea kind in health food stores and on the web. Hoodia gordonii can be found in the semi-deserts of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola. Hoodia grows in clumps of green straight stems and is truly a succulent, not a cactus. It requires about 5 years before hoodia's light pink flowers appear and the cactus can be gathered. Only the hoodia gordonii range is thought to support the natural appetite suppressant, although there are 20 forms of hoodia.

Even though hoodia was "discovered" relatively recently, the San Bushmen of the Kalahari desert have now been eating it for a very number of years. The Bushmen, who live off the land, would cut off the main hoodia stem and eat it to ward off thirst and hunger during nomadic shopping trips. Hoodia was also used by them for severe abdominal pains, haemorrhoids, tuberculosis, heartburn, hypertension and diabetes.

In 1937, a anthropologist learning the San Bushmen noted they used hoodia to reduce appetite. But it was not until 1963 when researchers at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa's national lab, began monitoring hoodia. Preliminary results were promising -- weight was lost by lab animals after taking hoodia.

The active ingredient was isolated by the South African scientists, working with a British company named Phytopharm 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 study.

Ultimately pharmaceutical giant Pfizer (makers of Viagra) caught wind of hoodia and became enthusiastic about creating a hoodia medicine. In 1998, Phytopharm sub-licensed the rights to develop p57 to Pfizer for $21 million. Pfizer recently came back the rights to hoodia to Phytopharm, who's now dealing with Unilever.

Things you need to know about hoodiaHoodia seems to suppress appetiteMuch of the buzz about hoodia began after 60 minutes correspondent Leslie Stahl and crew moved to Africa to try hoodia. A local Bushman was hired by them to track down some hoodia and choose them to the desert. It was eaten by stahl, describing it as "cucumbery in structure, although not bad." The desire was lost by her the entire time to eat or drink. She also didn't experience any immediate unwanted effects, such as for example heartburn or heart palpitations. Stahl concluded, "I had need to say it did work."

In animal studies, hoodia is considered to reduce calorie consumption by 30 to 50 %. There's one human study showing a low absorption of about 1000 calories daily. But, I've maybe not been able to locate either study to truly study for myself and am going on secondhand reports.

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