Hoodia Gordonii is a flowering plant that belongs to the family Apocynaceae. It is a plant that reaches up to 1 meter in height. It has large purple or tan color flowers with strong smell. It is also called locally xhooba, Ghaap and khoba. It is also known as ‘Queen of the Namib’ and ‘Bushman’s Hat’. Hoodia is found naturally in Southern Africa in the semi-deserts of the countries of Namibia, South Africa, Botswana and Angloa. It is particular to the Namib Desert.
The San Bushmen who inhabit the Kalahari Desert have always known about the various uses of Hoodia. They are known to consume the stems of Hoodia plant during the long drawn hunt that takes them far away often without sight of food for days. The plant suppresses their urge to eat and drink. They also use the plant for treating various other health problems such as severe abdominal cramps, diabetes, hemorrhoids, hypertension, tuberculosis and indigestion. There are varieties of Hoodia plants, about twenty of them. of them, it is only Hoodia Gordonii that is found to contain hunger. The plant flowers after about five years.
As early as 1937, a Dutch anthropologist had noted that the San Bushmen consumed Hoodia to suppress appetite. But it was only in 1963 that this was studied were carried out at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the national laboratory of South Africa. The scientists, along with Phytopharm, a British company, isolated a steroidal glycoside, the active ingredient in Hoodia. They named it as p57. Very soon Hoodia began to be sold in liquid and capsule form and marketed extensively through health food stores. It has become popular as Hoodia 57. It is promoted as an effective supplement to lose weight and control obesity. What Hoodia does is to send signals to the brain which makes you feel full and lose appetite. This in turn makes you avoid over eating.
The extensive harvesting of Hoodia has led Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to include it in the list in Appendix II. This means that Hoodia stands the risk of it being declared as an endangered species if its trade is not effectively controlled. It was listed in 2008 by the Botanic Gardens Conservation International as being threatened with extinction due to over-extraction. Hoodia is now cultivated in the government controlled farms in the Kalahari Desert. Royalty is also now shared with the San Bushmen.
Almost everything that we need is provided by nature. Thus, we should never abuse nature, instead we take care of it.
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