Hoodia, pronounced as HOO-dee-ah is basically a cactus-like plant that grows mainly in the semi-deserts of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola. Hoodia gordonii was discovered by the first Europeans, Paterson and Colonel RF Gordon, in December 1778 near the Upington region of the Northern Cape of Southern Africa.

It had previously been extensively used for myriad years by the San tribal population to check hunger while hunting, to preserve sound health, and as a medicine for different diseases. They still continue to use Hoodia gordonii for treating themselves for various ailments. The Hoodia gordonii plant constitutes a marvel molecule called P.57AS3 used by the Bushmen of the Kalahari desert to destroy hunger while tracking game in the ruthless desert.

They were known to have cut off the stem and eat the bitter-tasting plant. Hoodia gordonii typically grow in clumps of green vertical stems. Even though it is often called a cactus because it bears a resemblance to one, hoodia is actually a succulent plant. It takes almost five years before hoodia gordonii's pale purple flowers emerge and the plant can be harvested.

It all began in the year 1937, when a Dutch anthropologist studying the San Bushmen marked their use of hoodia gordonii to curb appetite. In 1963, scientists at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa's national laboratory, began to study hoodia in detail. They observed and subsequently claimed that animals in the lab lost their weight after they were administered hoodia gordonii.

The South African scientists, functioning with a British company called Phytopharm, isolated what they understood to be an active ingredient in hoodia gordonii, a steroidal glycoside, which was named by them as p57. It can allow you to lose weight in the knowledge and comfort that you'll never again have to miss out on a luncheon, dinner or festive occasion for fear of overeating. After acquiring a patent in 1995, they licensed p57 to Phytopharm. Phytopharm has spent more than $20 million on research of hoodia. Finally pharmaceutical giant the Pfizer came to know about hoodia and articulated its interest in producing a hoodia drug for weight loss. In 1998, Phytopharm sub-licensed the rights to produce p57 to Pfizer for $21 million and later on Pfizer returned the rights to hoodia to Phytopharm, who is now operating with Unilever.

The popularity of shy rocketed after the correspondent of 60 Minutes Leslie Stahl and its team traveled to Africa to try hoodia. They hired a neighboring Bushman to go along with them into the desert and track down some hoodia plants. Stahl herself consumed it, describing it as "cucumbery at surface, but not bad as such" She reported that she lost the craving to eat or drink the whole day. She also said she didn't come across any direct side effects like indigestion or heart palpitations.

Despite its huge popularity, there does not exist any published randomized controlled trials conducted on humans to confirm that hoodia is safe as well as effective in pill form.