A Guide To Hoodia Gordonii

Hoodia is a cactus like plant that mainly grows in African countries. In last few years, it has become popular as it has some weight loss properties. It is a bitter tasting and succulent plant that resembles cactus, and is found mainly in Kalahari Desert. It takes 5 years for the flowers to appear on this plant, and these flowers are purple in color.

Hoodia Gordonii contains p57, which is a steroidal glycoside. It became famous after a correspondent of a television show went to the desert in search of this bush, and after eating, she reported that she had lost the appetite for the rest of the day without any side effects such as nausea, indigestion, or any heart related problems. There is also Hoodia Gordonii Plus, in which 50 mg of garcinia cambogia, a native of Africa and America, is added.

How Does Hoodia Gordonii Work

Hoodia Gordonii works by making you feel full. It makes you eat less, and hence you consume lesser calories throughout the day and lose weight. Currently, it is one of the most commonly used natural appetite suppressant in most of the diet pills.

Hoodia Gordonii is the dream ingredient for many companies who want to sell weight reduction pills. It is used in various forms such as powder, liquid or capsule. It is a very common herbal weight loss supplement. Some of the most common brands that have been proved to give good results are Desert Burn, Strictly Health, Hoodoba, Hoodia hoodia.

The experiments relating to Hoodia Gordonii have been done mainly on rats. Hoodia injections were given to the rat brains in the appetite center and the results indicated that these rats ate less as compared to other rats.

The marketers of hoodia claim that there are no known side effects, and they claim that bushmen is south African deserts have been consuming it for thousands of years in order to ward off hunger and thirst while hunting for many days in the deserts. They however used it as a food, not medicine.

Pfizer has done some studies on hoodia products, and the results indicate that Hoodia can have some unwanted effects on the lever. This side effect is mainly caused by components other than p57 which and are not easily removable.

How To Judge The Quality Of Hoodia Gordonii

With the exponential increase in the demand for Hoodia Gordonii, the market has been flooded with contaminated and counterfeit products. It is not easy to tell if the hoodia being used in any product is real or not unless it is tested in the laboratory. The quantity of real hoodia available in the market is scarce, as hoodia grows in very specific hot and humid conditions. Pure hoodia can be quite expensive, as it requires some particular conditions to grow and ripe. To mature, Hoodia needs 4-5 years, hence the amount of hoodia available is limited and prices escalate. More than 80% of the samples that are submitted for testing and verification fail the authenticity test in US. Some of these claimed products do not contain Hoodia Gordonii at all. Unless genuine hoodia is made available, it is very difficult to find out if hoodia works or not.

There is the certification CITES available for genuine hoodia, and is required by any company that sells it. CITES stand for Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.