South Africa, where at least 70 percent of the people trust on traditional methods, and where newspapers run stories of AIDS patients who swear by “miracle” herbal concoctions. — The bustling Market is jammed with bundles of bulbs, roots, animal parts and barks used to treat all manner of maladies, ranging from madness to coughs and infections. The markets are owned by Traditional Herbalists who spend years learning to treat illnesses using plants located in the fields and forests related to their local village.

Vacationer to any of South Africa’s markets come from the countryside for cures of a number of illnesses. With 24,000 plant species, the biodiversity of this country is almost uncomparable. And with almost 300,000 traditional healers nationwide, local knowledge of plants and their uses is equally bountiful. A crucial place in their inventory is always accorded to the plant Xhoba, known scientifically as hoodia gordonii extract.

hoodia gordonii extract have been transferred down from generation to generation; its capacity to curb off hunger and thirst has proved invaluable to the hunters of the San people who used to spend days without food or water while searching for their quarry on the Kalahari’s arid plains. Hunters would cut a slice, munch it, and within minutes appetite for food and thirst would evaporate, leaving a sensing of strength and alertness. They could travel for days eating nothing else. Some elders also attribute aphrodisiac qualities to the plant. One elder told the Mail and Guardian in Johannesburg: “When the grandfathers eat the Xhoba, the grandmothers can’t let them out of their sight.”

Sprouting 6ft high amid the prehistoric prickly, green, sour and and vegetation the hoodia gordonii extract is a succulent in the family Asclepiadaceae. Hoodia gordonia is an unattractive plant that grows deep inside the African Kalahari desert thriving in extremely high temperatures. It forms multi-stemmed clumps 45cm (18in) high and bears unpleasant-smelling, pale purple disc-shaped flowers 7.5-10cm (3-4in) in diameter. The blossoms have an unpleasant smell because the plant has evolved to be pollinated by flies rather than bees or other insects. The unpleasant smell draw in the flies to the blossom. The hoodia gordonii extract sprouts about 10 tentacles, each the size of a long cucumber. Each tentacle is covered in spikes which need to be carefully peeled. Inside is a slightly unpleasant-tasting, fleshy plant. The hoodia gordonia gordonii, can only be increased in desert conditions.

Intriguingly there is nothing better than the real thing and that is now becoming available to the world market according to hoodia side effects. More than just the wild growing hoodia gordonii extract, farms are sprouting up that cultivate this valuable plant. Imagine this: dieters eating any amount of sugar and carbohydrates and yet still lose the same amount of weight as they would on the Atkins diet. This means that dieters after taking hoodia patch as an appetite suppressant could possibly still eat their favorite foods with attaching buy hoodia.