Things You Need to Know About Hoodia Gordonii

Popularly known as Hoodia and also known by its Latin nomenclature “Hoodia Gordonii”, the products is also named variedly as Xhooba, Ghaap, Hoodia cactus, and ikhoba and is grown primarily in semi desert areas of Botswana, Angola, South Africa, and Namibia.

Reasons for Popularity

As a product, Hoodia is very popular as it is the premier element in most of the weight loss products and supplements. Some of the reasons for its popularity are as follows.

  • Millions of people suffering from obesity and overweight problems across the globe have taken to diet pills. Since the other primary ingredient of manufacturing diet pills; ephedra was banned; Hoodia has been the favored product for making the weight loss diet pills.
  • San Busmen of the Kalahari deserts have been using Hoodia as appetite suppressant for thousands of years.

Hoodia Features

To know what Hoodia is, one can have a look at its following basic features.

  • Hoodia as a plant product grows in clumps.
  • Green and upright stems are the features of the plant.
    • It greatly resembles the cactus though it is actually a succulent plant.
  • Around five years time is required for the pale purple flowers to appear and getting ready the plant for harvesting.
  • No less than 13 types of Hoodia are there.
  • Till date only one of the active ingredients of Hoodia known as steroidal glycoside called p57 has been identified.

Origin of Hoodia

Way back in 1937 CSIR scientists in South Africa started the study of Hoodia and ultimately came to the conclusion that it has good effects for weight loss. P57 was identified by them in 1995 and was patented to Phytopharm. Pfizer, the giant company in the arena of pharmaceuticals sub licensed p57 in 1998 for around $21 million but did not occupy the right over Hoodia. Ultimately it was the writings by Leslie Stahl that made many believe that Hoodia can effectively help weight loss and fat burning by suppressing appetite in human beings. Since then there has been no looking back for Hoodia that has been virtually dominating the field of weight loss and fat burning ingredients.

What is Hoodia Forms as Weight Loss Products?

What are Hoodia forms when it is used as weight loss supplement?

  • Most popular form is as ingredient in Hoodia capsules.
  • Another form is inclusion of Hoodia in powder form in the weight loss supplement.
  • It is also included in form of liquids for weight loss.
  • A form is use of the herbal element as tea and it is found in such form in online as well as offline stores.

Safety Concerns in Use of Hoodia

Though Hoodia is immensely popular, there is yet very little clinically proved material to establish its safety features for weight loss and use by humans. Scientific experiments have established that it can suppress hunger but that was the result of experiment on rats arrived through brain injections.

Results of oral consumption by human beings are yet to be established beyond all reasonable doubts though there are stray research and analysis results showing positive effects of Hoodia for appetite suppression and weight loss.

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