Buy Hoodia Gordonii Plant

The Hoodia genus takes its name from Van Hood - a succulent plant grower, while the name of the 'gordonii' variety honors R. Gordon, who discovered it in 1778. Also called "Queen of the Namib" and "Kalahari cactus", because it looks like a cactus, even if it is actually a succulent. It is a plant with a greyish green stem and an erect and branching habit, covered with numerous tubercles, which look like spines. In August and September you can admire the wonderful flower of Hoodia: flat and round, resembling a disc, of a color, ranging from brown to purple, with tiny dots and slightly lighter veins. It gives off an unpleasant smell.

buy hoodia gordonii plant

The genus became internationally known and threatened by collectors, after a marketing campaign falsely claimed that it was an appetite suppressant for weight loss.[2][3] Folk medicine practitioners indigenous to Southern Africa believed the plant to be an appetite suppressant and to have other medicinal properties, such as treating indigestion and small infections.[4]

According to a 2006 review, no published scientific evidence supported hoodia as an appetite suppressant in humans.[10] One review suggested that any weight loss effects from consuming hoodia dietary supplements may simply be secondary symptoms of potentially serious adverse effects that may occur from using it.[11] The United States Federal Trade Commission recommends against the use of such diet products marketed with exaggerated claims for losing body weight through the use of dietary supplements, skin patches or creams.[12]

As H. gordonii and the whole genus Hoodia are threatened with extinction if international trade is not monitored, the genus is listed under CITES at Appendix II, and it is illegal to export plant material in any form from Africa without a CITES certificate being issued by proper authorities.

In the USA, the Fish and Wildlife Service, United States Department of Agriculture, and United States Customs and Border Protection regulate the importation and re-exportation of species such as H. gordonii. Current U.S. laws stipulate that not only must a CITES certificate accompany shipments, but also the importers must possess a permit issued by the USDA to import terrestrial plants. A CITES re-export certificate is needed to re-export H. gordonii.

As of 2007, four independent labs are conducting tests to verify H. gordonii in consumer products. They are: Advanced Laboratories, Inc. in Smithfield, North Carolina, Alkemist Pharmaceuticals, Chromadex Labs of Irvine, California, and the University of Mississippi. The American Herbal Products Association completed work in 2009 establishing the de facto industry standard for authentication in response to scrutiny by the Federal Trade Commission of the hoodia industry and complaints by consumers of fraudulent hoodia products being marketed.

The media coverage and heavy marketing by nutritional supplement companies have created such a demand for Hoodia spp. plants that a protected status was imposed in several countries, such as Namibia. Many products claiming to contain Hoodia spp. do not actually contain the active ingredient alleged to suppress appetite.[citation needed] An ongoing review of hoodia pills by Alkemists Pharmaceuticals found at least half of the products advertised as containing hoodia contained none.[15]

Lack of scientific evidence or regulatory approvals have not stopped dietary supplement companies from marketing H. gordonii supplements with claims that it can reduce appetite and cause weight loss. Goen Technologies Corporation's TrimSpa unit began marketing it under the brand name X32 with celebrity spokesperson Anna Nicole Smith, though the FDA has notified Trimspa in a Warning Letter that it has not demonstrated that claims for their product are scientifically supportable.[17] Health Canada has not approved any hoodia products for sale.[18] However, they are sold in natural health stores. Goen Technologies was sued by the state of New Jersey for misleading consumers.[19] The Trimspa brand was the subject of a lawsuit in California, which claims it does not contain any of hoodia's active ingredient.[15]

In December 2004, Unilever entered into an agreement with Phytopharm to start marketing H. gordonii commercially in the form of shakes and diet bars, although as of April 2007, no products have yet surfaced on the consumer market from that venture.[20] In 2008 Unilever pulled out of deal with Phytopharm to continue commercial development of hoodia. A document on Unilever's website entitled "Sustainable Development 2008: An Overview", and signed by Paul Polman, CEO, contains the following statement: "Innovation also carries uncertainties and does not always lead to a positive outcome. During 2008, having invested 20 million [pounds] in R&D, Unilever abandoned plans to use the slimming extract hoodia in a range of diet products. We stopped the project because our clinical studies revealed that products using hoodia would not meet our strict standards of safety and efficacy." Page 12.

Between March and June 2006, millions of e-mail spam and forum messages were sent out concerning hoodia, ostensibly offering hoodia extracts for weight control purposes. The Federal Trade Commission logged numerous complaints of consumer fraud associated with hoodia.[15]

In October 2009, Santa Cruz County District Attorney Bob Lee joined colleagues from several other counties in a lawsuit against three companies that allegedly make false claims that their diet supplements contain extract from the African hoodia plant. The lawsuit, filed in Solano County, stated that Dex L-10 by Delmar Labs, Breakthrough Engineered Nutrition and Geopharma produce products with packaging and advertising that claim to contain H. gordonii when they contained little or none of it.[21]

This century, hoodia has gone from being regarded as nothing more than a rotten-smelling desert plant to being praised as a natural dietary supplement believed to suppress appetite and boost weight loss (1).

Consuming hoodia may cause unwanted side effects, including nausea, dizziness, vomiting, skin reactions, elevated heart rate, and high blood pressure. More research is needed to determine a safe dose, if any.

It's taken years for overweight Americans to discover what the South African bush people knew innately -- or so the story goes. For eons, the bush people have nibbled a native succulent plant called Hoodiagordonii -- and stayed slim. No fretting (apparently) about fitting into "skinny jeans" or advancing a belt notch.

Now, the plant native to the Kalahari Desert is being imported in heaps to slim down hefty Americans. Media reports and word-of-mouth is fueling this latest weight loss craze, not to mention thousands of email spams.

Widely sold over the Internet and in health food and discount stores, Hoodia gordonii is typically offered in capsules or tablets, but is also available in milk chocolate chews. A 30-day supply often costs $35 and up.

Hoodia -- a succulent, not a cactus, as it's often erroneously described -- has lots of hoopla, but little science, at least little published science, as even advocates admit. Experts familiar with it say hoodia tricks your brain into thinking you're full. But they acknowledge that published, scientific studies proving hoodia works long-term are sparse.

"We can only say the evidence available to us right now, which is considered inadequate, suggests that there is some type of appetite-suppressing mechanism in some of the naturally occurring chemicals in hoodia," Blumenthal says. He adds that his organization has not received any consumer reports of safety problems with hoodia use.

The laboratory evidence Blumenthal refers to was produced by David MacLean, MD, an adjunct associate professor at Brown University in Providence, R.I., and a former researcher at the pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer. In a report published in the Sept. 10, 2004, issue of Brain Research, MacLean reported that a molecule in hoodia, called P57, likely has an effect on the brain's hypothalamus, which helps regulate appetite. His study was done in animals.

In an email response to WebMD, MacLean says a cousin of hoodia's P57 molecule may eventually prove to be the better answer. "A chemical within that class of molecules has real potential to reduce appetite," he says. "I'm less confident regarding the hoodia molecule itself for reasons relating to its metabolism [absorption and breakdown] in humans."

About the time MacLean's article was published, Richard M. Goldfarb, MD, a doctor in Morrisville, Pa., conducted a study of Hoodia gordonii on people and found it effective. His study was small, just seven people, says Goldfarb, medical director of Bucks County Clinical Research, an organization that conducts studies for pharmaceutical and other companies.

Goldfarb studied DEX-L10, the 500-milligram hoodia capsules sold by Delmar Labs. Goldfarb did the study for the manufacturer but says he was not paid for the research. "I did it as a service to them," he says.

In Goldfarb's study, the seven overweight participants were told to take two Hoodia gordonii (DEX L-10) capsules a day, eat a balanced breakfast and take a multivitamin, and keep other eating and exercise habits unchanged. The participants' starting weights ranged from 193 to 345 pounds. They lost, on average, 3.3% of their body weight, Goldfarb says. The median loss over the 28-day study was 10 pounds (half lost more, half less).

Most of the participants reported their caloric intake dropped to less than half within a few days after starting hoodia, and they didn't report side effects such as jitteriness or insomnia, Goldfarb says.

"Hoodia gordonii works within the satiety center of the brain by releasing a chemical compound similar to glucose but up to 100 times stronger," Goldfarb says in his written report. "The hypothalamus receives this signal as an indication that enough food has been consumed and this in turn decreases the appetite." 041b061a72