Hoodia FAQ's

What Is Hoodia Gordonii?

Does Hoodia Gordonii really Suppress Appetite?

How much weight will I lose if I use Hoodia?

How long before I see results?

How can I tell if the Hoodia supplement I have is Legitimate?

I have heard you should only buy Hoodia from South Africa - Is this true?

What is the story with 20:1 Hoodia Extracts?

What to watch out for when buying Hoodia?

Is there anyone who should not use Hoodia?

What about all the Cheaper Hoodia Supplements on the market?

Hoodiagordonii (pronounced HOO-dee-ah) Hoodia gordonii is a suculente plant from the botanical family Asclepiadaceae. This Succulent plant has a spiny appearance resembling a cactus plant , and can be found primarily in the semi-deserts of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola.

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Yes. Hoodia kills the appetite and attacks obesity. The p57 compound found in hoodia appears to work by increasing the content of adenosine triphosphante (ATP) in nerve cells in the hypothalamus.

That really depends on your diet and exercise. Hoodia Gordonii is an amazing weapon to cut hunger and cravings, of course we all still need to eat. What you decide to eat for your meals and how much you exercise will determine how much weight you lose.

For most people, it is those late night snacks and in between meal cravings that are the hardest to deal with. Hoodia will help reduce the desire to snack, since you trick your brain into thinking you are full. Therefore, if you have healthy meals and exercise, you should see significant weight loss - all without side effects!

If you using a quality hoodia supplement (like Desert Burn) hoodia you should see results within 14 days. While some people will notice appetite suppression within the first few days of using hoodia, for other people the body needs more time to build up the active ingredients in hoodia. For this reason, you should stick with taking hoodia supplements as directed for at least 14 days before judging its effectiveness.

It is also important to drink 8 ounces of water when taking hoodia capsules, this helps the hoodia get fully absorbed into your body.

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It is estimated that as many as 80% of the advertised Hoodia supplements do not contain pure Hoodia. There have been countless reports over the past several years of counterfeit and adulterated products being sold as pure Hoodia.

The plants take 5-6 years to grow and mature before they can be cultivated. Click here to read more.

South Africa the country or South Africa the southern region of Africa? I know this sounds like splitting hairs, but let us explain. The Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert have used hoodia gordonii for thousands of years to suppress appetite.

So, you want to get hoodia from the Kalahari Desert. Quick geography lesson - the Kalahari Desert is in southern Africa and covers over 100,000 sq mi. Numerous countries have land in the Kalahari Desert including: South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

The Bushmen primarily live and travel across South Africa and Botswana. So, the hoodia that the Bushmen use is not only found in the country of South Africa, but also in the country of Botswana - located in southern Africa. You can get very good hoodia gordonii from the Botswana section of the Kalahari Desert, which is not South Africa (the country) hoodia. For this reason we think it is more accurate to say "You should only get Hoodia Gordonii from the Kalahari Desert".


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You will see a number of hoodia supplements that claim to use a 20:1 Hoodia extract. They make the claim that "taking one of our 200mg capsules is the equivalent of eating 4 grams of the Hoodia plant". We find the Hoodia Extract claims both misleading and potentially in violation of various patent laws.

Phytopharm owns a patent on the "process to extract the hoodia plant". Phytopharm uses about 20 lbs of raw hoodia gordonii plant to produce 1 lb of hoodia for weight loss applications.

This is where the "20:1 extract" terminology comes from. Again, we are not lawyers, but we believe if you say you use a 20:1 extract of the hoodia gordonii plant to produce an appetite suppressant, you are violating Phytopharm's patent on the process to extract hoodia and the use of hoodia as an appetite suppressant. While Phytopharm has not been actively enforcing its patent, we feel the lawsuits will come shortly against companies claiming a 20:1 extraction.

We find the 20:1 Extract claim misleading in that technically it is not an extract - it is just a concentrate. Companies are not extracting a certain portion of the hoodia plant that is 20 times as powerful as the rest of the plant. It is simply what they call a "wet versus dry number." If you take 20 pounds of raw hoodia (wet) and dry it, turn it into chips and process it into to powder (dry) you only end up with 1 pound. To be accurate, this should be a called a 20:1 concentrate, not an extraction.


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Hoodia can be collected, harvested, and sold only with a permit from CITES (the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species). CITES is an international agreement formed between governments to ensure that the harvesting and sale of wild plants and animals does not threaten their survival. click here for more tips when buying hoodia.

While hoodia is considered very safe and side effect free, we do not feel that women who are pregnant or nursing should use hoodia supplements. In addition, if you have high blood pressure, you may want to check with your Doctor before using a hoodia supplement. It makes sense to always check with your doctor before starting any new supplements program.

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We know that on paper, there are Hoodia supplements that look like a better deal than the Hoodia Hoodia. We contacted most of these "cheaper pure hoodia" companies and were not impressed by what we heard. We got deceptive answers to some of our questions and just plain lies to others.

In the end, we were able to determine what raw Hoodia Gordonii from the Kalahari desert costs per kilogram. Once we had this number, we did the math to see if the Desert Burn Hoodia was fairly priced. What we found was, not only is Desert Burn Hoodia the Gold Standard of Hoodia, it is also very competitively priced. The company is looking to make money on volume, therefore, there is very little markup on each bottle of hoodia.

Interestingly, some other companies are claiming to sell Hoodia supplements for 50% less than what it costs to buy the raw Hoodia from South Africa. This leads us to believe they are using hoodia from China or Mexico (which costs 400% less than South African hoodia), even though they falsely claim their hoodia is from South Africa. The problem is the math doesn't work out, so the old saying holds true - "You get what you pay for".

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