Hoodia Love? Stop Hunger w/Organic Cactus

The Hoodia Gordonii plant has been in the news as a miracle cure for the overweight.

Here's what the media's saying:

• "Imagine not being hungry all day without feeling side effects typical of diet pills, like a racing heart or queasy stomach"...(quote from a CBS correspondent on 60 minutes)
• A drug that is going to beat fat. Hoodia will become a slimming miracle... (The Guardian. The Observer. UK)
• Bushmen Medicine to deliver breakthrough obesity remedy...(CORDIS RTD-NEWS / European Communities)
• The discovery of Hoodia's appetite-suppressing properties. Imagine this: an organic pill that kills the appetite and attacks obesity. It has no known side-effects, and contains a molecule that fools your brain into believing you are full... (BBC. UK)
• Appetite suppressing Hoodia Cactus. They have long relied on it to survive. "Hoodia is my food, my water, my medicine" - One Sanhunter said... (KOMO TV & News)
• The Magic molecule will save the west from obesity. San people of South Africa have been using for generations the Hoodia plant to successfully stop unbearable hunger and summon limitless energy, without unwanted side effects, Hoodia stops hunger and also treats sickness... (ABC, USA)
  

Hoodia Gordonii is a plant that has been used by the indigenous people of the Kalahari desert as an appetite suppressant. Its main function was to quell the thirst and hunger that would affect warriors during long hunting trips. These warriors even fed their dogs slices of the plant to keep them from having interest in their food supplies. African natives still chew the leaves of the plant to stave off starvation and exhaustion.

The hoodia plant looks like a cactus even though botanically it is not a cactus, but it is often marketed as one.

Hoodia's appetite suppressant properties were only discovered about thirty years ago. The South African Council was looking for indigenous plants that could be a source of food. Among the plants screened were Hoodia and experiments on animals confirmed the plant's ability to cause weight loss without side effects.

Hoodia gordonii is very rare and is protected by national conservation laws in South Africa and Namibia. It can only be collected or grown with a permit. This is why it is so expensive.