You might have surely heard about
‘Hoodia cactus plant extract’ by this time as it
has been broadcasted by numerous major media sources, like the
‘BBC’, ‘The Today Show’,
‘CBS’ and much more. Because of this, Hoodia
Gordonii products have quickly ascended to become one of the fastest
growing segments of the ‘diet supplement market’.
Before choosing a Hoodia product you should know that there are many
kinds of Hoodia plant, but only the Hoodia Gordonii type has an
astonishing ‘appetite suppressing’ quality. These
properties have been known about for centuries by a primitive tribe
known as the ‘Sans Bushmen’. During mid 1990s an
institute called the C.S.I.R. ‘Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research’ was conducting a study of native plants
eaten by the ‘Sans Bushmen’. Basically, the study
was to see what foods, the ‘Sans Bushmen’ were
taking that protected the toxic compounds. When the C.S.I.R. studied
Hoodia Gordonii, they found it was not only non-toxic, but also it
helped to suppress the appetite of animals it used to feed to.
Hoodia Cactus Plant
Finally, the C.S.I.R. isolated the active
ingredient responsible for the ‘appetite
suppressing’ effects and called it ‘P57’.
This is the ‘Hoodia cactus extract’. They then sold
the rights of ‘P57’ to a British pharmaceutical
company called ‘Phytopharm’. You may be wondering
how it can be there are so many Hoodia products on the market if only
‘Phytopharm’ has the rights to
‘P57’. The answer lies in the patent laws. You know
that, only ‘Phytopharm’ can extract the active
molecule called ‘P57’ from Hoodia Gordonii and use
it in their product line. But a whole natural plant - in this case the
Hoodia Gordonii plant- cannot be patented. As a result, other
companies’ can very well produce supplements or products made
from Hoodia Gordonii and sell them legally.
The important thing for consumers right now is to make sure that they
are buying a product that contains genuine South African Hoodia
Gordonii.