Information About Hoodia

If you haven't come across Hoodia yet, it has proven itself in scientific trials as being capable of suppressing the human appetite. It has the potential to save millions of people the embarrassment, inconvenience and severe health risks of chronic obesity.

However, a breakthrough as large as this is never without those unscrupulous people who try and take advantage by selling products which have a limited value, and even those which contain no Hoodia at all. This is why it is so important to do your due diligence, and make sure you find the correct information before you part with any money.

The easiest place to do this research is, of course, online. You have to be careful, however, because there is a lot of misinformation on the internet, purposefully put there to make sales of bogus, worthless, products.

One of the first websites to look at is the site of Phytopharm, the British company that holds the license to the patents for Hoodia. They have already spent no less than $20 million in research on the new discovery. Their website has a comprehensive question and answer section, which will give you a good grounding into the potential of the Hoodia plant.

Official government opinion is, at the moment, thin on the ground. As of yet there are no official warnings against Hoodia, or Hoodia products or suppliers. All the Government says is that we should treat the claims of all diet products with "a healthy portion of skepticism".

There are several cases pending where the Federal Trade Commission is bringing suit against companies who claim that their products contain Hoodia, when in fact they do not. The Government has now issued a patent for the active ingredient in Hoodia Gordonii, known as "P57", so it seems that they are convinced of the results of the basic research, and prepared to accept that the genuine product does in fact work.

It is absolutely critical that you take the necessary step of arming yourself with enough information to avoid falling foul of the Hoodia scams, many of which are selling products that contain no Hoodia at all. Mike Adams, a journalist with News Target, has said that he believes as many as four out of every five Hoodia products are either completely fake, or else have some form of dilution to make the effect negligible. Many of these products are offered on the internet with fake certificates of authenticity.

Hoodia is a rare plant that take four to five years to grow in climatic conditions which are exactly right for it. It is also subject to a CITES agreement between governments, which mean that a permit is needed to grow or harvest the plant.

Although there are laboratories which test Hoodia products, and are prepared to issue certificates attesting to their authenticity, there is nothing to stop unscrupulous retailers from sending off genuine samples, and then selling an adulterated product in the marketplace. There are a very few brands of Hoodia which do seem to have consistently passed the tests that have been made on them, but it is a very few.