About Hoodia Gordonii

Hoodia Gordonii is a small, leafless succulent plant but it is not a cactus although it resembles one. It grows only in the Kalahari Desert and is extremely rare, while enormous demand after the BBC report and CBS news program 60 Minutes threatened it with extinction. For that reason Hoodia Gordonii is listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flower and Fauna (CITES) which controls and approves its export from Africa. Without a CITES certificate and certificate of African authorities its export is illegal. Thus products which claim containing Hoodia Gordii plant extracts must have two certificates which prove the authenticity of the Hoodia Gordii from the Kalahari Desert. There are several species of Hoodia but only Hoodia Gordonii species have appetite suppressive properties. For that reason "hoodia" products which do not have certificates of authenticity are not containing the real Hoodia Gordonii.

Hoodia Gordonii has been known and used by native African peoples already for a long time mostly for treatment of indigestion and infections, while the greatest attention attracted their habit to eat the meat of the plant to suppress appetite. Knowledge of plant's appetite suppressive properties - more precisely of its isolated ingredient oxypregnane steroidal glycoside known as P57 dates from the second half of the 20th century but prior to the 60 Minutes program which reported over Hoodia Gordonii as a natural appetite suppressant there was practically no interest either to manufacture or to purchase products containing the plant. However, after the 60 Minutes program occurred enormous demand for Hoodia Gordonii worldwide, while African authorities were forced to protect the plant to prevent its extinction. For that reason only few nutritional supplement companies are allowed to export Hoodia Gordonii plant from Africa, while Hoodia Gordonii products are available in a form of pills and liquid extracts.