Hoodia Extract VS. Real 100% Pure Hoodia Gordonii

Our real deal, 100% Pure Hoodia Gordonii, raw materials supplier is "1 of 5" in the world (..and the only one in North America) granted a license for import and distribution of authentically grown South African “Aerial stem, only,” powdered Hoodia Gordonii. Not the discarded pulpy leaf/flowers extracts or 20:1 and 10:1 extract ratios that some products offer. With the scarcity of the Hoodia Gordonii plant, this would make it financially too expensive to produce. Even if possible, just isolating the active compound P57 from the plant through concentrates, extracts and 20:1 / 10:1 ratios, or into a “drug” as “Pfizer” attempted, all other important supporting medicinal ingredients, like the ALOE in the Hoodia, which in part what helps suppress the appetite, are left out of the equation.

Another tactic that is confusing the consumer is the supposed differences in the quality of other Hoodia brands. The most common is to do with the term ‘extract’. Some companies claim that they sell an extract which is more powerful than non-extract products. (What is an extract? An extract is a concentrated from of a herb, that is derived after the crude herb has been mixed with water, alcohol, or another solvent and distilled or evaporated).

No one is selling Hoodia Gordonii extract, as it would be violating the patent held by CSIR (which has been leased to Phytopharm, who in turn have leased it to Unilever). Any company claiming to sell a Hoodia extract had better watch their step – apart from misleading consumers, Phytopharm and Unilever are unlikely to ignore such blatant patent theft.

A letter from our Hoodia licensed South African gordonii suplier...

From: Jen Cully MHSCI
Date: 04/01/04 08:15:09
To: Rinske Johnson
Cell Health Makeover -Hoodia Canada Division
Subject: Re: 100% Pure Hoodia Trim-Fast powder source

If you look at the picture on our site of the Hoodia in Bloom you will see pink flowers on the tops. They smell like dead animals so they attract flies and that is how they germinate. The part of the hoodia plant that we use is the stem that comes up from the ground and the root is left in to regrow. It's like a cucumber shape. I have attached 2 pictures of hoodia growing. One is a farm photo and the other is a seedling. They ordinarily take about 4 years to grow to maturity but with all of the different vitamins and nutrients they use in horticulture today they can reach maturity at 3 years. I notice some Hoodia websites say it can grow to 6', but I have been to Africa in the last couple of months and I don't think that is possible. I saw a few hoodia farms that were ready to harvest and the plants were about 2 feet tall.

Hoodia Extracts are a much different story. To begin with, Phytopharm as you may have read, has the patent to 'synthesize' the appetite suppressing P57 molecule in Hoodia Gordonii. They have been working on it since 1996 and they partnered with Pfizer in 1997. Pfizer dropped out of the project in July of 2003 and we could only speculate as to why they did that. We believed initially that because the South African government started to issue export permits for Hoodia Gordonii and that the market would be flooded with pure whole plant material and who would use any costly drug that they might manufacture.

Since 2 giant pharmaceutical research companies cannot isolate the molecule to reproduce it after 7 years in the lab, it only stands to reason that manufacturers would have the same problem and would not be able to produce an extract. It would be too unstable and would probably end up with little or no effect.

The other thing about these Hoodia extracts is that they claim to be 10:1 or 20:1 ratio of extract, and most claim 20:1. If you make a 20:1 extract it means you are taking 20kgs of that material to make 1, throwing away all but the active ingredient. That would make it a very powerful material. However, when you extract, and there are many herbal extracts that are good, you take away alot of the supporting benefits such as the aloe benefit that I mentioned previously. Some plants have great supporting properties, but when they are extracted they are gone and some of the extracts done work as well without them.

The cost to make a 20:1 is prohibitive. You would use 20kgs to make 1, so you would throw away 19. Their cost for 1 60 capsule bottle of hoodia would be 150.00 USD and they would not be able to sell it for unter 200.00 per bottle.

The other thing you will notice is that we list our licensing on our site. Both Western Cape and CITES (cites is a UN watchdog for endangered species,(plant and animal), will not allow anyone to have that licensing on their site unless they are licensed. There are on 5 licenses issued for export of 100% pure Hoodia gordonii and 1 is in Asia, 3 in Europe and 1 in North America. That would be us( HOODIA TRIM-FAST). We are also a raw material and ingredient supplier for the nutra/phamarceutical and vet industries and this is the first product we thought was worth putting a label on. Real Hoodia gordonii is awesome.

Hope I answered your questions. Please let me know if I can help further.

Have a great day.
Regards, Jen Cully
MHSCI