The hoodia gordonii plant has been known to the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert for thousands of years. As they lived, hunted and traveled through the arid desert, they ate a bit of the plant as a food substitute. This plant works amazingly well as a food substitute in the desert region because it kills one’s desire to eat or drink anything. This is extremely useful in the desert where both food and water are extremely scarce and difficult to carry around.

The hoodia gordonii plant is considered to be a cactus because it looks like one. In fact, it isn’t a cactus at all. It’s a succulent plant that grows in the Kalahari Desert. It belongs to the genus Trichocaulon (family name – Asclepiadaceae.) Hoodia gordonii grows in clumps of green stems that grow upright.

It takes about five years for hoodia gordonii’s pale purple flowers to appear. The plant can only be harvested after the appearance of these flowers. The texture of the plant is like a cucumber, according to Leslie Stahl, a correspondent with the TV show 60 Minutes. She traveled all the way to Africa to try out hoodia.

The amazing appetite suppressing ability of the hoodia gordonii plant comes from a single active ingredient which was isolated in South Africa’s national laboratory, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) by a group of scientists. It was called p57. Although there are around 13 varieties of the hoodia plant, only hoodia gordonii has this ingredient.

Attempts have been made to produce this ingredient synthetically (notably by Pfizer), but the cost of doing so is prohibitive and the project was abandoned. Currently, the british pharmaceuticals company Phytopharm holds the license for hoodia gordonii.

One of the good products out there that use the power of the cactus to help people lose weight is Hoodia Gordonii Plus. If you want to lose weight, it’s something you should check out.

Hoodia Gordonii, more commonly known as hoodia, is one of the most celebrated weight loss products available on the market today. Hoodia Gordonii is actually a cactus-like plant that grows in the semi-arid desert areas of Africa. It’s known to have been used by Bushmen in the region for hundreds of years as a food supplement in the arid desert. Because it naturally supresses hunger, it’s great for use in the desert. For the same reason, though, it’s also great for weight loss.

This ability of hoodia first came to the attention of the scientific community when a Dutch anthropologist came across it while he was studying the Bushmen. In 1963, scientists at south Africa’s national laboratory claimed that lab animals lost weight when they were fed hoodia.

At that time, scientists started working on isolating that active ingredient of hoodia that made it appetite suppressing. This active ingredient, a steroidal glycoside, was eventually discovered and named p57. Although there are 13 different varieties of hoodia, only hoodia girdonii has p57 in it.

Eventually, p57 came to be patented in 1995 and was licensed to a British pharmaceuticals company called Phytopharm. They spent over $20 million on hoodia research. In 1998, the rights of p57 were sub-licensed to Pfizer.  Pfizer returned the rights to Phytopharm, who is currently working in association with Unilever.

The potent ability of p57 to suppress hunger has made it an immediate success in the world of weight loss. It has been heavily marketed as the new miracle drug, especially after the FDA banned another weight loss drug, ephydra. Hoodia became an effective substitute for ephydra users and in fact gained even more followers.

If you’re looking for a great product that has P57 (and more) Hoodia Gordonii Plus is the product for you.