Low Down On The Hoodia Gordonii Plant
For several years now the Hoodia Gordonii plant has been creating a lot of attention. The reason for this is the effect the plant has on a person who consumes it.
A British company called Phytopharm performed some research on the plant and found that the active ingredient P57, reduces a persons appetite. As you can imagine this has great appeal to those wishing to reduce their weight.
Many companies since then have developed pills, teas, and extracts from the Hoodia plant that. This has created quite a market with lots of demand.
What and Where
The Hoodia Gordonii plant grows in certain countries in the southern region of Africa, near the Kalahari desert. The Hoodia Gordonii plant will only grow in a very hot climate. People have attempted to grow the plant in other continents without success. The plant does not flourish where there is excess water, humidity or cold weather.
The Hoodia Gordonii plant is not considered to be very attractive. In fact some people would even describe it as being unsightly. It is a succulent plant that looks very much like a cactus, although officially it isn’t one. The flowers of the plant have fleshy pink petals.
A Short History
The San Bushmen of southern Africa have been using Hoodia Gordonii plants for several thousand years. They chewed on the plant in order to quench their thirst and suppress their appetite so that they could give their full attention to hunting game without needing to stop in order to eat.
In the 1990s the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research discovered that the Hoodia Gordonii plant made animals lose weight while they were studying the diet of the San Bushmen. They soon managed to find out what molecule in the plant acted as an appetite suppressant and sold the patent to Phytopharm. The appetite suppressant molecule the researchers discovered is called P57. Since then various pharmaceutical companies have been looking for ways to synthesize the P57 molecule from the plant into pills and other products that can be sold to promote weight loss.
What Makes It Work
What exactly does the active ingredient in the Hoodia Gordonii plant do to help people and animals lose weight? Apparently molecule P57 stimulates the nerve cells of the hypothalamus in the same way as glucose so that it tricks the brain of the individual who has ingested it into thinking it is full. As a result people who ingest the Hoodia Gordonii plant do not have any desire to eat for several hours.
Studies performed on the Hoodia Gordonii plant show that people who consume it then eat an average of 1000 calories less during a day then normal. While long term effects of using the plant are not known it can be said that the San Bushmen of the South African desert have been using it for centuries with not ill effects.
But with many products it might be suggested to use them to get your weight under control as you develop better eating habits and health practices you will be able to maintain a more healthy lifestyle without the need for hoodia.
