South African scientists have been testing the Hoodia plant since 1996 when they discovered the plant contained a previously unknown molecule, dubbed P57 by Britain’s leading pharmaceutical researcher Phytopharm, that replicates the effect glucose has on nerve cells in the brain fooling the body into thinking it is full, even when it is not. Hoodia’s appetite suppressing molecule is said to be almost 10,000 times stronger than glucose. This South African scientist council know as the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research), tested a large number of bush foods, including Hoodia Gordonii. It was observed that the Hoodia plant caused a decrease in appetite and body weight in animals that did not appear to be due to a direct toxic effect of the plant.

Pharmaceutical giant Phytopharm is working to produce a drug for the weight loss industry in the next few years, but pure Hoodia Gordonii works incredibly well in its pure natural form. Extracts such as 20:1 and 10:1 rations do not contain the active P57 when tested at top notch laboratories in the industry.

Results of human clinical trials in Britain suggest that P57 could reduce the appetite by up to 2,000 calories a day.

The reason it has taken so long to bring this natural compound to the marketplace has to do with modern research methodology since the effects were first observed in 1937 by a Dutch anthropologist studying the San Bushman of the Kalahari Desert. He noticed that they munched on the stem of a certain variety of Hoodia plant as an appetite suppressant and thirst quencher before and during nomadic hunts through the sand swept and sparsely vegetated area.