Hoodia is a new and powerful nutritional supplement for suppressing the appetite. This substance works simply by stopping the cravings for food.
This impressive plant contains a special substance which acts on the brain by sending a signal to tell the body that it is satisfied and does not need more food.
Suggested usage for Hoodia is somewhat dependent upon body mass. A recommended dosage of 50-200 mg of 20:1 extract 1 hour before meal time is a good general guideline.
There are no side effects from the usage of Hoodia, other than lack of hunger and weight loss.
The Hoodia Gordonii cactus has been used for centuries by the Xhomani Sans bushmen of southern Africa's Kalahari desert, to suppress the appetite during long hunting trips.
It works by making patients feel full after ingesting it, and it has been shown to lower food intake by up to 50% in small studies by pharmaceutical companies wishing to create a synthetic derivative.
Although Western scientists became aware of the plant's potential 100 years ago, it was only recently that its active ingredient was patented by the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
Subsequently, a British biotechnology company, Phytopharm, and the pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer acquired the rights to its development and commercialization as an anti-obesity drug for use in the West. Now the San people, in the first deal of its kind, will be rewarded for the development of a drug which makes use of their traditional knowledge.
Under the terms of the agreement, the San people will receive regular fees as the drug - developed from a plant used to suppress the appetite - passes various stages on the way to market.
In an interview with ABCNEWS, a spokesman for the San people who live in the Kalahari Desert, Andries Steenkamp says, "I learned how to eat it from my forefathers," as he prepared a piece of the cactus-like plant called hoodia by trimming off the prickly spikes. "It is my food, my water, and also a medicine for me."
"Hoodia stops hunger and also treats sickness," Steenkamp told ABCNEWS. "We San, use the plant during hunting to fight off the pain of hunger and thirst."
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that obesity is rapidly reaching global proportions. According to the WHO, more than 1 billion people are overweight with 300 million of those clinically or morbidly obese (double their normal weight). The medical community reports excessive weight gain is directly related to severe medical problems including heart disease, diabetes, cancer and the onset of strokes.
There are no known side effects with Hoodia Gordonii although it is said to possess a mild aphrodisiac effect. It contains no Ephedra or Caffeine or any other stimulants.
From the Reports of Tom Mangotd BBC Correspondent
The cactus test
In order to see for ourselves, we drove into the desert, four hours north of Capetown in search of the cactus.
Once there, we found an unattractive plant which sprouts about 10 tentacles, and is the size of a long cucumber.
Each tentacle is covered in spikes which need to be carefully peeled.
Inside is a slightly unpleasant-tasting, fleshy plant.
At about 1800hrs I ate about half a banana size - and later so did my cameraman.
Soon after, we began the four hour drive back to Capetown.
The plant is said to have a feel-good almost aphrodisiac quality, and I have to say, we felt good.
But more significantly, we did not even think about food. Our brains really were telling us we were full. It was a magnificent deception.
Dinner time came and went. We reached our hotel at about midnight and went to bed without food. And the next day, neither of us wanted nor ate breakfast.
I ate lunch but without appetite and very little pleasure. Partial then full appetite returned slowly after 24 hours.
The Hoodia Gordonii plant grows in the Kalahari Desert region of South Africa. The Kalahari is 100,000 square miles of hostile African Desert.
The Hoodia Gordonii plant grows in the Kalahari Desert region of South Africa and although it looks like a cactus and is in fact part of that family, it is categorized as a succulent. The Hoodia plant has been used for centuries by the San People of the Kalahari to stave off pain, hunger and thirst when they traveled for weeks, months and even years across the vast desert. The San people number in the 100,000 population range and with the Hoodia plant marketed around the world, will see riches beyond their imagination.
The San people are the aboriginal people of Southern Africa. Their distinct hunter-gatherer culture stretches back over 20,000 years, and their genetic origins reach back over one million years. Recent research indicates that the San are the oldest genetic stock of contemporary humanity.
Ten thousand years ago their exclusive domain stretched from the Zambezi to the Cape of Good Hope, from the Atlantic to the Indian Oceans.
Three hundred years ago European colonists called them "untamable". Now southern Africa's 110,000 remaining San face cultural extinction, living lives of poverty on the outer edges of society. Today they struggle to win back a foothold, along with their pride, in the lands they once roamed freely.
The San people, in the first deal of its kind, will be rewarded for the development of a drug which makes use of their traditional knowledge.
Under the terms of the agreement, the San people will receive regular fees as the drug - developed from a plant used to suppress the appetite - passes various stages on the way to market.
The San people hailed the agreement as a "joyous moment".
Mr Chennelts, lawyer for the San People in negotiating the export of the Hoodia Gordonii plant is ecstatic:
"The San will finally throw off thousands of years of oppression, poverty, social isolation and discrimination."
"We will create trust funds with their Hoodia royalties and the children will join South Africa's middle classes in our lifetime."
Hoodia plants are native to the semi-deserts of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Angola. And even though there are about 20 species in the family, the Gordonii is the only one that contains the natural appetite suppressant.
When South African scientists were testing the Hoodia plant, they discovered the plant contained a previously unknown molecule.
Results of human clinical trials in Britain suggest that this active ingredient could reduce the appetite by up to 2,000 calories a day.
This active ingredient works by replicating the effect glucose has on nerve cells in the brain fooling the body into thinking it is full, even when it is not. Hoodia appears to contain a molecule that is almost 10,000 times stronger than glucose.
Dixey organized the first animal trials for Hoodia. Rats, a species that will eat literally anything, stopped eating completely. When the first human clinical trial was conducted, a morbidly obese group of people were placed in a strictly enforced environment. All the volunteers could do all day was read papers, watch television, and eat.
Half were given Hoodia, half placebo. Fifteen days later, the Hoodia group had reduced their calorie intake by 1000 a day. It was a stunning success.
Dr Richard Dixey who performed some of the first clinical trials on the Hoodia plant, explained how the active ingredient actually works:
"There is a part of your brain, the hypothalamus. Within that mid-brain there are nerve cells that sense glucose sugar.
"When you eat, blood sugar goes up because of the food, these cells start firing and now you are full.
"What the Hoodia seems to contain is a molecule that is about 10,000 times as active as glucose.
"It goes to the mid-brain and actually makes those nerve cells fire as if you were full. But you have not eaten. Nor do you want to."