Hoodia research started when a dutch anthropologist studying the San tribe discovered the san people chewed the hoodia gordonii plants to suppress appetite during hunting trips. Year 1937.

Then, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), a south african research agency discovered the steroidal glycoside, an active elelement on hoodia gordonii plants, having appetite suppression effects. The research was held based on the San tribe experiences with Hoodia Gordonii. Was the first time a research body claimed hoodia may reduce weight.

Hoodia research in its basics started in 1937. A dutch anthropologist studying the San tribe noted the hoodia gordonii the used have helped to suppress appetite.

Then, the research on Hoodia started in South Africa in 1963. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), a national research & development official agency in South Africa isolated an active compound for appetite suppression from the Hoodia gordonii plants, based on research from the San tribe experiences with Hoodia Gordonii. They experienced with animals and claimed the hoodia gordonii reduced weight.

MacLean DB and Luo LG, two researchers at the Division of Endocrinology, Hallett Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology, Brown Medical School, were intrigued by the fact that P57 is chemically similar to a class of plant-derived compounds called cardiac glycosides, of which the ones derived from various foxglove species (genus Digitalis) are the best known.

These powerful drugs increase the force of contraction of the heart muscle and help maintain normal heart rate and rhythm. A common side effect of the cardiac glycosides is loss of appetite.

Like many other drugs, cardiac glycosides act by interacting with specific receptor molecules embedded in the walls of our cells.

When stimulated by such interactions, these receptors (which are large, complex proteins that act as molecular channels) initiate a chain of events inside the cell, the net effect of which is the action attributed to the drug.

In the case of cardiac glycosides, the receptor molecule is called Na/K-ATPase. Its primary function is to regulate the flow of sodium ions (Na+) and potassium ions (K+) into and out of the cell through the molecular channel, using chemical energy provided by molecules of ATP (adenosine triphosphate).

Increased ATP content/production in the hypothalamus may be a signal for energy-sensing of satiety: studies of the anorectic mechanism of a plant steroidal glycoside.

This research was developed by MacLean DB and Luo LG, at the Division of Endocrinology, Hallett Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology, Brown Medical School, Providence.

Briefing of the report:

A steroidal glycoside with anorectic activity in animals, termed P57AS3 (P57), was isolated from Hoodia gordonii and found to have homologies to the steroidal core of cardiac glycosides.

Intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injections of the purified P57AS3 demonstrated that the compound has a likely central (CNS) mechanism of action.

Hoodia Clinical Trials

It is true that more research on Hoodia and more clinical trials are necessary to discover the effectiveness of Hoodia. Meanwhile, the Phytopharm clinical trials are a good starting point. Follows a description of the first hoodia clinicaltrial done by the Phytopharm company.

So the drug’s potential speaks for itself.

Phytopharm’s Dr Richard Dixey explained how P.57 actually works: “There is a part of your brain, the hypothalamus. Within that mid-brain there are nerve cells that sense glucose sugar.

“When you eat, blood sugar goes up because of the food, these cells start firing and now you are full. “What the Hoodia seems to contain is a molecule that is about 10,000 times as active as glucose.

The following is a document detailing the analysis method to determine the existence of appetite suppressant element P57 on hoodia gordonii plants.

P-068: DETERMINATION OF THE APPETITE SUPPRESSANT P57 IN HOODIA GORDONII PLANT EXTRACTS AND DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS BY LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY/ELECTROSPRAY IONIZATION MASS SPECTROMETRY (LC-MSD-TOF) AND LC-UV METHODS

Bharathi Avula1, Yan-Hong Wang 1, Rahul S. Pawar1, Yatin Shukla2, Brian T. Schaneberg3 and Ikhlas A. Khan1

1National Center for Natural Products Research, Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences; 2Department of Pharmacognosy, School of Pharmacy, The University of Mississippi, MS 38677, USA; 3ChromaDex Analytics, Boulder, CO 80301 USA