Hoodia gordonii is a small succulent plant native to the desert and semi-desert regions of southern Africa, growing wild in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Mozambique. The plant produces pink and off-white flowers that are said to produce an unpleasant smell akin to that of rotting meat. Hoodia gordonii grows in small clumps of fleshy, spine covered stems and looks a lot like a cactus, though it is in fact a succulent.

The plant has long been known to have medicinal properties, and was used by local peoples – notably the San people of the Kalahari – to ease indigestion and to treat minor infections. Its principal use however, and the one for which it became famous in the West, was as an appetite and thirst suppressant.

The desert regions of the Kalahari are a tough environment; one that the San people and their ancestors have been scratching a living in for perhaps tens of thousands of years. Their lifestyle dictated that sometimes hunters would have to spend several days hunting prey, with little food or water to sustain them. When taking these long treks in search of food, the hunters would eat the flesh of Hoodia gordonii plants to suppress their appetites and thirsts.

Although the San have been using Hoodia gordonii for thousands of years, the rest of the world only found out about it in the 1950’s, when a South African author named Laurens van der Post was commissioned to produce a documentary on behalf of the BBC. Although there was limited interest in Hoodia at the time, the full commercial implications of Hoodia were not realised until the 1990’s when the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research patented the active molecule of Hoodia gordonii (a glycoside protein molecule labelled ‘P57’). The council had actually isolated this compound in 1977; quite why they waited almost twenty years to patent it is unclear.

Whilst a synthesized P57 product has not been released, for several years Hoodia plants and extracts have been available from health food shops and online retailers, and are sold in a variety of forms and strengths. You can buy Hoodia as a powder, capsule, pill, infusion and even whole dried stems of the plant.

It is thought that the compound P57 works by tricking the brain into thinking the stomach is full, so that you need to eat less food to feel satisfied when taking Hoodia gordonii.

Hoodia gordonii is thought to have few or no side effects – after all, the San peoples have been eating the plant for thousands of years – but it is recommended that people with diabetes avoid the plant, as its appetite suppressing properties may affect normal blood glucose levels. Although Hoodia is not a stimulant, it is also recommended that those who suffer from heart or other circulatory problems such as high blood pressure also avoid eating the plant.