History of Hoodia Gordonii
Hoodia Gordonii has been used by the San Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert for centuries to suppress appetite. They needed to suppress appetite to survive the harsh desert conditions, in which food and water were scarce. In 1937, the use of Hoodia Gordonii as an appetite suppressant came to the notice of a Dutch anthropologist, who was studying the ways of the San tribe.
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which is South Africa’s national laboratory, began studying Hoodia in 1963. They conducted tests on lab animals and claimed they lost weight after they were given Hoodia Gordonii.
CSIR scientists worked with the British pharmaceutical company, Phytopharm and isolated the active ingredient in Hoodia Gordonii, which causes appetite to be suppressed. They named this active ingredient P57. In 1995, they obtained a patent on the molecule P57. The patent was licensed to Phytopharm. Since then Phytoparm has conducted extensive research on its properties and has spent more than $20 million on such research.
The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer learned about the appetite suppressing properties of Hoodia Gordonii and expressed its desire to develop a Hoodia drug. In 1998, Phytopharm sub-licensed the rights to develop P57 to Pfizer for which Pfizer made a payment of $21 million. These rights were returned by Pfizer to Phytopharm, who is now working with Unilever on the project of developing Hoodia diet products.
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