South Africa, where at least 70 percent of the people commit on traditional methods, and where newspapers run stories of AIDS patients who swear by “miracle” herbal concoctions. — The hustle Market is jammed pack with bundles of bark, roots, bulbs and animal parts 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 discovered in the fields and forests related to their local village.

Visitors to any of South Africa’s markets come from the countryside for cures of different 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 benefits is equally ample. An important place in their inventory is always accorded to the plant Xhoba, known scientifically as hoodia plus.

hoodia plus have been passed down from generation to generation; its capacity to curb off hunger and thirst has demonstrated invaluable to the hunters of the San people who used to spend days without food or water while considering for their quarry on the Kalahari’s arid plains. Hunters would cut a slice, munch it, and within minutes craving and thirst would evaporate, leaving a feeling of strength and alertness. They could travel for days eating nothing else. Some elders also impute 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 plus is a divine in the family Asclepiadaceae. South african hoodia 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 distinct smell because the plant has evolved to be pollinated by flies rather than bees or other insects. The unpleasant smell allure the flies to the blossom. The hoodia plus 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 south african hoodia gordonii, can only be expanded in desert conditions.

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