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What you need to understand 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 a cactus that is causing a stir for its capability to control appetite and promote weight loss. 60 Minutes, ABC, and the BBC have all done stories on hoodia. Hoodia comes in pill, fluid, or tea form in health food stores and on the net. Hoodia gordonii can be found in the semi-deserts of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola. Hoodia grows in clumps of green upright stems and is truly a tasty, not just a cactus. It takes about 5 years before hoodia's pale purple flowers appear and the cactus could be gathered. Although you can find 20 types of hoodia, only the hoodia gordonii variety is considered to contain the natural appetite suppressant.

While hoodia was "discovered" relatively recently, the San Bushmen of the Kalahari desert have now been eating it for an extremely long time. The Bushmen, who live off the land, would cut off part of the hoodia stem and eat it to ward off thirst and hunger during nomadic shopping trips. They also used hoodia for severe abdominal pains, haemorrhoids, tuberculosis, indigestion, hypertension and diabetes.

In 1937, a anthropologist learning the San Bushmen observed they used hoodia to suppress appetite. However it was not until 1963 when scientists at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa's national lab, began observing hoodia. Initial results were encouraging -- lab animals lost weight after taking hoodia.

The South African boffins, dealing with a firm named Phytopharm, isolated the ingredient in hoodia, a steroidal glycoside, that they named p57. After finding a patent in 1995, they licensed p57 to Phytopharm. Phytopharm has spent a lot more than $20 million on hoodia study.

In the course of time pharmaceutical giant Pfizer (manufacturers of Viagra) caught wind of hoodia and became interested in creating a hoodia medicine. In 1998, Phytopharm sub-licensed the rights to build up p57 to Pfizer for $21 million. Pfizer recently returned the rights to hoodia to Phytopharm, who's now dealing with Unilever.

What you need to know about hoodiaHoodia appears to suppress appetiteMuch of the hype about hoodia began after 60 minutes correspondent Leslie Stahl and staff moved to Africa to try hoodia. They used an area Bushman to choose them in to the wilderness and track down some hoodia. Stahl ate it, describing it as "cucumbery in structure, however, not bad." She lost the desire the entire day to eat or drink. She also didn't experience any immediate side effects, such as indigestion or heart palpitations. Stahl concluded, "I had need to say it did work."

In animal studies, hoodia is thought to reduce calorie consumption by 30 to 50 per cent. There is one human study showing a diminished absorption around 1000 calories each day. However, I have perhaps not been able to find either study to actually study for myself and am going on secondhand accounts.

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