The hoodia gordonii plant has its origins in southern Africa. African people knew of its effects long before Europeans went to the African continent. Africans called the plant in different ways like xhooba or xshoba. They ate hoodia gordonii before they went hunting in order to reduce their hunger. For Africans, hoodia gordonii was not a food source but a medicine. They used it for treating different diseases like diabetes, indigestion or hypertension. The sensation of hunger and thirst disappeared after eating the plant, so they used it when travelling without other food sources. This is the way hoodia gordonii became an appetite suppressant.
The name of hoodia gordonii was given by Francis Masson. He wrote several books about African plants when he first mentioned "stapelia gordonii". In time the name was changed to hoodia gordonii and everyone uses this name now.
As I said before, hoodia gordonii was known in Africa for its ability as an appetite suppressant. Scientists started studying this plant in the 1960's. They identified the active ingredient of hoodia gordonii and patented it. The research done had medicinal purposes. After a while, they started to study the effectiveness of hoodia as a suppressant.
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research gave license to Phytopharm, a pharmaceutical company in England to continue the studies. This company sold the rights to Pfizer for 23 million $ and Pfizer gave back the rights to study after a few years.
The return of the study rights for hoodia gordonii made a lot of people believe that the plant is worthless. They said that if hoodia was so effective and safe, Pfizer would have not given the rights to study it. The actual position of Pfizer is that they did not have the necessary means to study it. Anyway, Pfizer returned the license and people started asking questions.
Another thing that may have pushed Pfizer into giving the license back is that they no longer had any plants section. Also, hoodia gordonii was not new to the world as its benefits for the new world were discovered 40 years back. Some people say that marketing the product would have been too expensive for Pfizer. Currently, the license is at Phytopharm and, with their new partner they constantly develop the plant's effectiveness.
Nowadays, African scientists work with Phytopharm in order to improve the effectiveness of hoodia gordonii. There is a big variety of hoodia plants, and scientists managed to isolate one element which they named p57. P57 works very simple. It "tells" your brain that you are full even if you haven't eaten for days. Hoodia gordonii could be an excellent alternative in terms of losing weight. If you want to buy hoodia products make sure you purchase the real one because there are a lot of fakes on the market.
The name of hoodia gordonii was given by Francis Masson. He wrote several books about African plants when he first mentioned "stapelia gordonii". In time the name was changed to hoodia gordonii and everyone uses this name now.
As I said before, hoodia gordonii was known in Africa for its ability as an appetite suppressant. Scientists started studying this plant in the 1960's. They identified the active ingredient of hoodia gordonii and patented it. The research done had medicinal purposes. After a while, they started to study the effectiveness of hoodia as a suppressant.
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research gave license to Phytopharm, a pharmaceutical company in England to continue the studies. This company sold the rights to Pfizer for 23 million $ and Pfizer gave back the rights to study after a few years.
The return of the study rights for hoodia gordonii made a lot of people believe that the plant is worthless. They said that if hoodia was so effective and safe, Pfizer would have not given the rights to study it. The actual position of Pfizer is that they did not have the necessary means to study it. Anyway, Pfizer returned the license and people started asking questions.
Another thing that may have pushed Pfizer into giving the license back is that they no longer had any plants section. Also, hoodia gordonii was not new to the world as its benefits for the new world were discovered 40 years back. Some people say that marketing the product would have been too expensive for Pfizer. Currently, the license is at Phytopharm and, with their new partner they constantly develop the plant's effectiveness.
Nowadays, African scientists work with Phytopharm in order to improve the effectiveness of hoodia gordonii. There is a big variety of hoodia plants, and scientists managed to isolate one element which they named p57. P57 works very simple. It "tells" your brain that you are full even if you haven't eaten for days. Hoodia gordonii could be an excellent alternative in terms of losing weight. If you want to buy hoodia products make sure you purchase the real one because there are a lot of fakes on the market.
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