Hoodia
Hoodia is popular ingredient in appetite suppressants. They are cactus-like plants that grow in South Africa, Namibia and Angola and have been traditionally used for thousands of years by the San Bushmen of the Kalahari desert. They used Hoodia Gordonii to stave off hunger pangs and to quench their thirst.
In 1996, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa started a study into the indigenous foods that the Bushmen ate. Part of the study was to test for toxic effects of these plants. What they found when they looked at Hoodia Gordonii was that not only was it not toxic, it also appeared to help animals to lose weight. By 1997, the CSIR isolated the bioactive compound in Hoodia that was responsible for appetite suppression. This compound is known as molecule P57.
In the 1990s, Phytopharm, a pharmaceutical company in the UK, performed clinical research on hoodia to monitor it effects on humans. The study found that P57 works in a similar way to glucose on the brain, tricking it into believing that the individual is full. The effects of hoodia are up to 10,000 times stronger than glucose. The subjects involved in the Phytopharm study reduced their calorific intake by up to 1,000 calories daily without any additional activity and by 1996, a patent was issued to Phytopharm for hoodia.
The connection between hoodia and the brain was confirmed in a study on rats conducted by Brown Medical School. The study linked the hypothalamus, which is the part of the brain that lets you know you are full, and hoodia by injecting laboratory rats. The ATP neurotransmitter and cell energy source in hypothalamic neurons increased up to 50 to 150 percent within 24 hours and the food intake of the rats injected with P57 decreased by between 40 to 60%.