The Hoodia Gordonii plant has been used by the San Bushmen of the Kalahari desert long before Europeans came into contact with it. It was invaluable to them to ward off hunger during their lengthy nomadic trips through the desert. They also used it medically for a number of other issues such as abdominal cramps, indigestion, haemorrhoids and tuberculosis.

The plant is a succulent that grows in the high deserts of the Kalahari Desert region of South Africa. It has appeared on the weight management scene only recently (since early 2004) in the west, but has been used for millennia by the San people of the Kalahari a tribe of hunter-gatherers to help ward off pain, hunger and thirst when the Bushmen made long trips in the desert

Hoodia has made an enormous impact on the weight loss products scene since it was first introduced in the West. While weight loss experts first greeted it with acclaim, competing vesting interests are now frantically doing their best to play down its effectiveness.

Hoodia's effectiveness derives from its appetite-suppressing component P57, which pharmaceutical companies are trying to synthesise so that they can patent it, but, until that happens, this plant is the only source. Hoodia Gordonii is not a stimulant, and has no known side effects

Research carried out at Brown University in Rhode Island recently suggests that the steroidal glycosides in hoodia affect nerve cells in the hypothalamus that monitor blood glucose. It appears that the effect of this is that the brain thinks that the body has sufficient blood sugar and doesn't need to eat more and shuts down the hunger mechanism.

The first human clinical trial was reputedly conducted by Phytopharm in which a group of morbidly obese men and women was placed in a place as close to prison as it gets. All they could do was read, watch television -- and eat. Half the group were given Hoodia and half were given a placebo. At the end of 15 days, the group on Hoodia had reduced their food intake by 1000 calories a day( compared with the average daily diet of around 2200 calories)

More recently, in two double-blind studies lean and obese laboratory rats were given Hoodia, which brought about major weight loss in the obese rats and moderate appetite suppression and weight loss in the lean rats. Hoodia also induced a modest drop in the rats' blood sugar levels, and no adverse side effects were reported.

There are no negative side effects reported for the use of this herb. A major claim made for Hoodia is that it does not produce the same unpleasant side effects as other appetite suppressants.

Ian Finlayson is webmaster of The Herb Spiral, a site committed to presenting no-hype information on medicinal herbs. More information on the Hoodia pherb can be found here