Hoodia Gordonii is a cactus like plant that grows mostly in South Africa and Namibia. It is not the most attractive of plants, but it does have a huge reputation in the field of modern medicine, particularly in the area of diet suppressants, in which area it is generally believed to be very effective.

In the last few years Hoodia has been the subject of what one could only call heavy marketing. This marketing has been based entirely on the area of weight loss and has been incredibly successful, with many people taking up the drug to combat issues such as simple weight loss. Other people have decided to use the drug to take action against obesity, whereby the sufferer is dangerously overweight. In both situations the drug has proved highly effective.

There has always been an exceptionally huge demand for diet pills. After certain diet pills were banned, Hoodia grew in popularity. It is now very common to see marketing campaigns for the drug, offering a complete dieting solution.

The indigenous South African tribesmen were said to use the plant to help them deal with the effects of long term hunger. They would often have to trek for miles across the Kalahari desert, and cutting off the stems of the plant and eating these would allow their appetite to be suppressed, therefore enabling them to last a lot longer on their treks without eating. While the Hoodia plant is often called a cactus plant due to its appearance, it is actually a succulent plant.

There are actually over 13 types of Hoodia. The only active ingredient present in all of these types is an agent commonly referred to as P57. This is the agent that is used for suppressing hunger.

Back in 1937, a Dutchman witnessed some indigenous South Africans using the Hoodia plant to suppress their appetite. This is where the story of the plant begins. Tests were done in South African labs on animals, the reports that came out of the tests confirmed what the scientists believed to be true, that one can lose weight if one takes Hoodia.

P57 is a steroidal Glycoside. A British firm called Phytopharm gained the rights to use P57, and quickly spent millions on researching it. Pfizer were involved at one stage in developing the drug further.

The excitement that surrounds Hoodia really began to take off due to a Sixty Minutes documentary, which had correspondents travelling to Africa to find the Hoodia plant. The correspondent who hosted the feature tasted the plant, and stated on television that she lost the need to eat or drink for the entire day. Thus the popularity of the drug was born.

One of the first major studies on Hoodia was centred on the research done with the drug and rats. Rats that were treated with the drug in laboratories were treated by injection. There was a placebo group that were injected with a fake drug. The rats that were injected with Hoodia actually showed signs of having a suppressed appetite, therefore adding weight tot the theory that the drug worked in this way.

Phytopharm carried out some studies on humans. Eighteen volunteers were subjected to a test of the drug. Appetite was suppressed in these subjects to the extent that 1000 calories less a day were consumed by those who had taken Hoodia Gordonii, as opposed to the placebo group, who had not.

There are some concerns that, at the moment, it is not always possible to be absolutely certain tat what you are buying is pure Hoodia. This is due to the emergence of some less than reputable companies in recent years, which claim to be selling the drug but are instead selling something quite different. There are ways to tell whether or not you are buying the real drug, and these will be covered in a later article. Hoodia Gordonii has rightfully taken its place as the world’s major diet suppressant. It is used by millions around the world to combat weight gain, and has therefore changed countless numbers of lives. It has become a blockbuster drug.