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 NBC
Today Show
It's the look everyone wants — a body to diet for. They're on
the beaches, in magazines and all over Hollywood. How far will we go
to get one? How about thousands of miles and deep into a distant culture?
South Africa’s Kalahari Desert is home to what could be the answer
to an appetite.
It's a cactus called hoodia. “You
strip off the skin, you strip off the spines, and then you consume it,”
says weight loss expert Madelyn Fernstrom.Read
the whole story
 ABC-7
Los Angeles
"South African San Bushmen who live in the Kalahari
dessert drink hoodia cactus juice to survive when food is not available.
Now manufacturers are harvesting the cactus' appetite-suppressing properties.
Studies done by the manufacturer show hoodia pills don't cause the
typical side effects of other diet drugs such as jitteriness."
 ABOUT.COM
(by Mary Shomon)
"Desert Plant is Promising Appetite Suppressant and Weight
Loss Supplement. If you haven't heard about the supplement Hoodia
gordonii, there's no doubt you will very soon.
Hoodia, a natural appetite suppressant, is
earning attention as a potentially powerful weapon in the war against
obesity and the American focus on losing weight. Hoodia
supplements were just introduced to the U.S. market in early 2004. "
Read the Whole Story
 WBAL
TV
"Dr. Richard Goldfarb thinks it works. He is the medical director
of research and development at Bucks County Clinical Research. He says
Hoodia isn't a stimulant but it works on the
brain.
Goldfarb: "The appetite suppressant effect -- after it accumulates
in your system, after only a few days that we saw in our study has shown
that people will cut their calories probably in less than half and their
not desiring any additional food.""
Read the whole story
 KOMO
TV
"One San hunter says "I learned it from my forefathers. It
is my food, my water, my medicine." "It's medicine because a little Hoodia
can kill severe hunger pains and quench the most powerful thirst. For
the desert hunter it is a godsend. Now one man's cure for hunger is
turning into another's diet drug."
Read the whole story
Hoodia National Geographic Investigative
Report (by Leon Marshall)
"Africa's Bushmen May Get Rich From Diet-Drug Secret...
The drug named P57 is based on a substance scientists found in the desert
plant Hoodia gordinii. The San call the cactus hoodia and have been
chewing on it for thousands of years to stave off hunger and thirst
during long hunting trips in their parched Kalahari desert home.. A
deal has been signed between the South African San Council and the country's
Scientific and Industrial Research Council (CSIR), which identified
the appetite-suppressing ingredient in Hoodia during research into indigenous
plants in 1996..."
Read the whole story
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