Extract Powder
Juice Powder
Fruit Powder

20:1Hoodia Gordonii Extract Powder

2016-10-18



Hoodia gordonii is a leafless spiny succulent plant with medicinal properties. It grows naturally in South Africa and Namibia. The species became internationally known and threatened by collectors, after a marketing campaign falsely claiming that it was an appetite suppressant for weight loss.The flowers smell like rotten meat and are pollinated mainly by flies. The indigenous San people (Bushmen) of the Namib desert call this plant ǁhoba (pronounced [kǁʰɔbɑ] - the initial sound is a lateral click) - and the Afrikaans Ghaap. Hoodia gordonii was discovered and painted by col. Robert Jacob Gordon in the vicinity of the Orange River in about 1779, and identified as a Stapelia, a closely related genus.
The genus became internationally known and threatened by collectors, after a marketing campaign falsely claiming that it was an appetite suppressant for weight loss. Pre-scientific cultures indigenous to Southern Africa believed the plant to be an appeitite suppressant and to have other medicinal properties, such as treating indigestion and small infections.
In 1977, the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) isolated the ingredient in hoodia—now known as P57—which may be responsible for its putative appetite-suppressant effect, and patented it in 1996. The CSIR then granted United Kingdom-based Phytopharm a license, and they collaborated with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer to isolate active ingredients from the extracts and look into synthesizing them for use as an appetite suppressant. Pfizer released the rights to the primary ingredient in 2002. Paul Hutson, associate professor in the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy, told the Wisconsin State Journal, "For Pfizer to release something dealing with obesity suggests to me that they felt there was no merit to its oral use." Pfizer states that development on P57, the active ingredient of hoodia, was stopped due to the difficulty of synthesizing it. Jasjit Bindra, lead researcher for hoodia at Pfizer, states there were indications of unwanted effects on the liver caused by other components, which could not be easily removed from the supplement, adding, "Clearly, hoodia has a long way to go before it can earn approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Until safer formulations are developed, dieters should be wary of using it."
In 2002, CSIR officially recognized the San tribespeople’s rights over hoodia, allowing them to take a percentage of the profits and any spin-offs resulting from the marketing of hoodia. H. gordonii is a protected plant which may only be wild-harvested by individuals and the few companies which have been granted a license.