Hoodia gordonii: Hoodia Web Scams
Hoodia Marketing Scams
Like any marketing opportunity that is potentially worth millions of dollars every year there a large number of companies have jumped on the Hoodia gardonii bandwagon and are selling products that may well not contain any extract from Hoodia gardonii at all.
Hoodia — The Scams
Hoodia is currently being sold online by various companies and individuals. They are selling dried, powdered hoodia. However, the appetite suppressing ability of hoodia gordonii is only found in large fresh pieces of the plant. The powder that you purchase contains such a small amount of P57 that it cannot produce the desired effect. These products are not regulated or inspected, and the exact contents are not known.
The current supply of genuine Hoodia gordonii is very limited, and is considered rare. The South African government has chosen to protect hoodia gordonii as an endangered plant. In October, 2004, CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) provided added protection. Hoodia gordonii cannot be exported as a weight loss product. Limited amounts of the plant can be exported, but only as herbarium collections. The extent of illegal trade is unknown.
Therefore, many of the Hoodia gardonii products you purchase on the internet may not be actual hoodia gordonii, may contain little to no P57, and are probably exported illegally and are encouraging the extinction of this plant. When purchasing this product make sure that it is derived from a reputable company who obtain the plant legally from the South African government
What Goes into Bad Supplements
There are a large number of tricks that unscrupulous companies use to produce products that claim to contain Hoodia but probably have no clinical efficacy whatsoever. One of the main tricks is not to use Hoodia gardonii. Of the 20-odd species of plants that belong to the Hoodia family only Hoodia gardonii contains the active ingredient p57. All the other species are completely worthless.
For maximum efficacy Hoodia gardonii is very sensitive to growing conditons. It needs a very high temperature and the right kind of rain conditons to grow properly. Though Hoodia seeds have been grown elsewhere (China, Mexico and the southern US) where increased rainfall makes the plant grow more rapidly but also means that these plants may contain almost no p57.
Another trick is to use as much of the Hoodia plant as possible. Unfortunately, only the fleshy interior of the growing stems contain p57 (the spines, roots and sking contain none but can still be used to bulk-up an inferior preparation of Hoodia).
The final problem here is perhaps the worst of all... Because Hoodia extract is sold as a supplement and not a drug it is not regulated by any of the international drug regulation authorities (such as the FDA in the US). Because of this a company may simply lie about the contents of their preparation, claiming that it contains Hoodia whereas in fact it contains none at all.
Hoodia, the Problem.
When it comes down to it, real Hoodia gordonii originating in the Kalahari Desert is expensive to grow, process and bottle especially as Phytopharm has contracts for a large percentage of the hoodia gordonii grown in the Kalahari putting demand much higher than supply and therefore driving prices for Kalahari Desert Hoodia gordonii way up.
Essentially, (and unfortunately from the viewpoint of the consumer) if a Hoodia supplement is sold very cheaply then it's probably fake. Consider that authentic Hoodia gordonii costs $225/kg USD on the open market as of Jan 2006.
There is also a question as to whether Hoodia products based on dried hoodia is efficatious as the drying process may render p57 ineffectual.
Reputable Supplies — Do they Exist?
The information above may well suggest to you that there is no such thing as a reputable supplier of hoodia extract. However, there are a number of reputable companies that do the right thing and they can be found here.