The Science of Hoodia

Hoodia does accept some affirmation to aback it up, says Mark Blumenthal, architect and controlling administrator of the American Botanical Council, a nonprofit analysis alignment in Austin, Texas. He cites one chic abstraction but says the affirmation is not conclusive.

"We can alone say the affirmation accessible to us appropriate now, which is advised inadequate, suggests that there is some blazon of appetite-suppressing apparatus in some of the by itself occurring chemicals in hoodia," Blumenthal says. He adds that his alignment has not accustomed any customer letters of assurance problems with hoodia use.

The chic affirmation Blumenthal refers to was produced by David MacLean, MD, an accessory accessory assistant at Brown University in Providence, R.I., and a above researcher at the biologic giant, Pfizer. In a address appear in the Sept. 10, 2004, affair of Brain Research, MacLean appear that a atom in hoodia, alleged P57, acceptable has an aftereffect on the brain's hypothalamus, which helps adapt appetite. His abstraction was done in animals.

In an email acknowledgment to WebMD, MacLean says a accessory of hoodia's P57 atom may eventually prove to be the bigger answer. "A actinic aural that chic of molecules has absolute abeyant to abate appetite," he says. "I'm beneath assured apropos the hoodia atom itself for affidavit apropos to its metabolism [absorption and breakdown] in humans."

About the time MacLean's commodity was published, Richard M. Goldfarb, MD, a doctor in Morrisville, Pa., conducted a abstraction of Hoodia gordonii on humans and begin it effective. His abstraction was small, just seven people, says Goldfarb, medical administrator of Bucks County Clinical Research, an alignment that conducts studies for biologic and added companies.