Hoodia Gordonii is heralded as the world's greatest weight loss product. The truth is the Hoodia Gordonii plant has very little to do with it. The appetite suppressing qualities that Hoodia seems to possess, are derived from one molecule that is found in the plant. This molecule is known as P57.
P57 was not discovered until the Hoodia Gordonii plant was being studied by a British company, This company, PhytoPharm has never published all the details of this study. A few bits and pieces have been released, but it is a pretty safe bet that the findings were quite promising. I base this on the fact that British health food giant Unilever Inc.(makers of SlimFast) entered into a contract with PhytoPharm to develop Hoodia Gordonii as a diet supplement. To date, Unilever has spent 21 million on research and development of Hoodia Gordonii products.
Prescription pharmaceutical companies have also taken notice of P57, several are rumored to be attempting to develop a synthetic form of P57. If this is successful a new prescription product would be produced and sold at much higher profit margins. This research is also reportedly running into the millions of dollars.
One thing is certain, there is no shortage of people who are claiming that the product is indeed miraculous. Many of the users claim to have lost almost all appetite urges, this in turn gives the power to control their eating habits.