Hoodia Gordonii is a plant that is similar to a cactus, it is most found in the desert areas of South Africa and Namibia. It is also searched in the deserts of Botswana and Angola. Hoodia today is famous and considered for its characteristic of weight loss and is remarkably wanted in developed countries. Hoodia is used as a component in diet pills that leads to the purpose of weight loss. It is a unique plant with such rich characteristic. It is observed that Hoodia has been used for long time ago by the SAN Bushmen of Kalahari Desert to eradicate hunger and thirst during the long trip of hunting. People used to cut the stem and eat the bitter tasting plant. Hoodia grows in clusters of green upright stem. It is basically a succulent plant and resembles a lot to the cactus. Hoodia takes duration of 5 years to be completely ripened and used, till its pale purple colored flowers appear. Although there are many types of this plant, but it is said that the active ingredient is only found in Hoodia, the active ingredient is identified as steroidal glycoside so called ‘p57’. It is thus said that ‘p57’ is only found in Hoodia Gordonii.
Hoodia Gordonii history is very interesting. The plant was taken under consideration in 1937 when the Dutch anthropologists studying San Bushmen noticed that they took Hoodia to kill their appetite and thirst. It was later practiced in national laboratory of South Africa, as a result of which they claimed that the lab animals lost weight after giving them Hoodia. Later on Leslie Stahl, correspondent of 60 minutes along with her crew visited Africa dessert, where they hired a bushman to find Hoodia, she ate the plant and stated that it was some what like a cucumber and didn’t tasted bad. A big point to be noticed that she didn’t faced any type of negative reaction like heart palpitations or indigestions, as a result she only lost her appetite for the whole day. Hoodia as a product is sold in form of powder, capsule, liquid or tea in health stores and on Internet. It is also found in a famous diet sill Trim spa. Hoodia Gordonii is a juicy plant. It has helped a lot of people to figure out their problems related to weight. It is a fact that over weight bodies does face a lot of diseases and it does make one feel embarrassed in front of other people who do no have such problem.
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