How Hoodia Works

Hoodia gordonii, a novel approach to lose weight is getting momentum in recent days. It is a cactus like succulent plant found extensively in semi desert area of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Angola. It is being used an appetite suppressor by the San speaking tribesmen for centuries. During 1937, a Dutch anthropologist, while studying the Bushmen found that they were eating a specific type of shrub to kill their appetite. In 1963, South African nationalized laboratory – Center for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) started studying the plant. In 1995, they patented an active ingredient – p57, for the appetite suppressing property of Hoodia gordonii. The patent was then sold to the British pharmaceutical company Phytopharm, who is at present marketing the product in association with Unilever.

It takes about 4-5 years to bloom for the plant Hoodia gordonii, when the light purple flowers come out. This is the time for the plant to farm again.

Few researchers consider that they have identified the active ingredient that is responsible for Hoodia’s feat as an appetite suppressing agent, with not much experiments into the Hoodia’s other possible mechanisms of biological action. Nevertheless, the active ingredient of Hoodia has been partially discovered. CSIR have pointed the active ingredient – p57, a sterol glycoside. It is a part of a cluster of naturally occurring substances called ‘Cardenolides’. Glycosides are well known to the scientists for its powerful action in cardiac functions, especially heart rate, for years. However, noticeable effects over the enzyme Sodium, Potassium ATPase (NA, K ATPase), the target of action for the cardiac glycosides, are not the basis of action in case of Hoodia administration.

The available hypothesis tells us that Glycoside sterols act straightway to the Hypothalamus (positioned in the Central nervous system and controller of secretion of various hormones) – releasing a message that the blood sugar level is high enough. This happens to a Glucostatic mechanism of weight reduction. In vitro studies involving laboratory animals suggests that intracerebroventricular injection of purified Hoodia derivative – p57AS3, resulted in higher concentration of ATP in the hypothalamus, that may be a cause of sensing of satiety. No such specific receptors for the p57 has been discovered in rat brain, but CSIR scientists have found that injection of this product in the brain has decreased the amount of food intake of these animals by 60% besides amplifying the numbers of ATP hypothalamic neurons by up to 150%. The tracking of calorie input by the hypothalamus may be triggered by rise in the intracellular neuronal energy – in the shape of ATP.

In spite of the fact that Hoodia has become immensely popular drug to combat obesity, there is no documented randomized controlled study organized in human subjects to show that Hoodia is safe in any of its form such as pill, extract or tea form.

The sole proprietor ‘Phytopharm’ conducted a stage III clinical trial involving 18 human volunteers. They concluded that after taking Hoodia, the intake of food of the subjects reduced by 1000calories a day in comparison to a placebo group. But this report was never published. So the quality of the trial can not be assessed.