Will The Hoodia Diet Be The Next Weight Loss Fad
Doug Smith

Defined Tag: hoodia diet.
Can the hoodia diet really deliver what the hype promises? Several drug companies are relying on it. Phytopharm, a UK pharmaceutical firm, was the first to get a license to manufacture P57, the main hoodia ingredient. Phytopharm has also sub-licensed some of its creation and distribution for diet hoodia supplements to other companies. Why are these big companies so interested in hoodia gordonii?

You can't discuss hoodia's dietary properties without mentioning the Kalahari Desert's San Bushmen, who live in South Africa. When food supplies were low, these brave hunters used hoodia in their diet to decrease the amount they needed to eat on long foraging trips. This went on for hundreds of years until the mainstream media seized upon the hoodia dietary properties. Since then, both overweight people looking for quick weight loss, and pharmaceutical companies looking for quick profits, want a piece of the hoodia dieting craze.

The appetite suppressant in hoodia was first patented by South Africa's governing scientific and research body, the CSIR. The San Bushmen who discovered the hoodia dieting properties, were originally left out of the deal, but have gained a profit sharing agreement. CSIR then granted a production license to UK's Phytopharm company to make and sell hoodia dietary supplements.

Unfortunately, the active ingredient in hoodia gordonii has proven difficult to produce in bulk quantities in a lab. The drug firm Pfizer tried and failed after partnering with Phytopharm to make products for hoodia diets. However, this hasn't stopped unscrupulous diet supplement makers from claiming their products contain hoodia. Be careful of what you buy.

Due to the inability to create bulk quantities of lab hoodia, the only source remains the hoodia gordonii plants growing in South Africa's desert. Sources claim that large hoodia farms have been created. Although the diet supplement plant hoodia is heavily regulated, illegal trade still occurs.

Any company that can solve the problem of easily and cheaply synthesizing hoodia in a lab will have a huge market advantage. Weight loss diet supplement sales for hoodia products are estimated between $0.6 billion to $2 billion each year. Many western countries have obese citizens, and hoodia dieting products are expected to sell very well.

People often look for the easiest route to their goal. Currently that route seems to be hoodia gordonii. If you can guess which company will be the first to create cheap hoodia diet products in bulk, buy their stock now!

Copyright 2007 by Doug Smith. All rights reserved worldwide. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.