Hoodia cactus, Hoodia gordonii

Deep inside the Kalahari desert of South Africa, grows an ugly cactus called Hoodia gordonii or as it’s known to the San Bushman tribe “Xhoba”. This cactus thrives in extremely high temperatures, and takes years to mature. The genus encompasses a number of varieties of plant of which Hoodia gordonii is one species. Hoodia plants are succulents, not cacti, although they do have a spiny appearance similar to cacti.

The San Bushmen of the Kalahari, who can trace their heritage back 27,000 years based on rock paintings, are one of the world's oldest and most primitive tribes. They have known about the properties of “Xhoba” for thousands of years, eating the Hoodia Cactus as a appetite suppressant and thirst quencher during nomadic hunts through the sparsely vegetated deserts. Besides alleviating hunger and thirst, Hoodia provides a state of alertness without the jittery feelings produced by the current western world’s diet remedy of Ephedra which is loaded with caffeine.

Hoodia Cactus kills the appetite and attacks obesity. It has no known side-effects, and contains a molecule that fools your brain into believing you are full. When South African scientists were routinely testing it, they discovered the plant contained a previously unknown molecule, which has since been christened P 57. so named because it was the 57th compound that Phytopharm spent money to develop.

According to Dr. Richard Dixey, the hypothalamus is the organ affected by the P57 molecule because it's the location of the "nerve cells that sense glucose sugar. When you eat, blood sugar goes up because of the food, these cells start firing so you feel full. What the Hoodia seems to contain is a molecule that is about 10,000 times as active as glucose. It goes to the hypothalamus and actually makes those nerve cells fire as if you were full. But you have not eaten. Nor do you want to."