Hoodia Diet Supplements The Science of Hoodia

Hoodia - The Science Behind Hoodia

For thousands of years, the Bushmen of Southern Africa have been using the hoodia plant as a means of appetite suppression. The Bushmen of Southern Africa spend a good deal of their time hunting and gathering across the desserts of the region. As a consequence, these people oftentimes have to go for an extended period of time with very little food. As mentioned, for thousands of years these people have taken to chewing hoodia. By chewing hoodia, the Bushmen of Southern Africa have been able to significantly reduce or suppress their appetite and boost their energy levels at the same time.

Oddly, scientists did not even take note of hoodia until the 1960s -- after the plant had been in use by the Bushmen for generation after generation. With that said, the early scientific recognition of hoodia really did not center specifically on the appetite suppressing qualities of the plant. Rather, the early studies merely were a part of an overall consideration of the diet regimens of the Bushmen of Southern Africa.

Thirty years later, specific research began to be undertaken in regard to the appetite suppression qualities of hoodia.

The discovery that hoodia had an appetite suppression effect actually initially was discovered by accident. In 1996, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa was studying the food consumed by the Bushmen, testing for toxic elements. These researchers found that by feeding hoodia to research animals, the animals lost weight.

Within a year, the scientists studying hoodia were able to isolate the specific element within the plant that was responsible for the weight loss and appetite suppression experienced by the research animals. The element these researchers identified actually was the 57th item analyzed in the research program and thus was given the somewhat uninspired designation of P57.

Scientific research into hoodia and P57 has revealed that hoodia and P57 can result in a person reducing caloric intake of 1,000 calories per day on average. Additionally, a person who consumes hoodia and P57 will show a drop in unwanted body fat as a result of the consumption of the plant extract.

Scientists have attempted to make synthetic P57 in the lab and have failed to date. There appears to be no effective and efficient method to manufacture synthetic P57 at this time. In addition, hoodia can only be cultivated successfully in a certain desert region in Southern Africa. Attempts to grow and cultivate hoodia anywhere else in the world has failed. Scientists studying the plant have thus far concluded that in order for hoodia to have an appetite suppressant effect it must be grown in the Kalahari desert region of Southern Africa.

In 2001 an important double-blind clinical study was conducted in regard to hoodia. One group was provided with a P57 hoodia extract while another group was provided with a placebo. Throughout the study, both groups of participants were instructed to carry forth with their regular diet and exercise regimens and routines. In the end, the group of participants receiving the P57 extract from hoodia experienced a significant reduction in caloric intake (averaging 1,000 calories per day over the control group receiving the placebo), had significantly lower body fat, experienced a boost in energy and experienced no noticeable side effects.

Research on the efficacy of hoodia and its P57 extract continues at this time. Specifically, Unilever -- the mammoth consumer products company -- is working at incorporating hoodia and the P57 extract into its line of diet and diet supplement products. At the present time, incorporating P57 into diet pills has been abandoned generally because of the inability to effectively create synthetic P57 which experts believe is necessary to meet the demand associated with the production of hoodia or P57 based diet pills at this point in time.

But even without synthetic P57, hoodia supplements are available (though they can be pretty expensive) containing the actual hoodia cactus ground into a powder and put in a pill. Look around the internet and you will find a number of reputable distributors of hoodia supplements.