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Consumer alert: con artists sell counterfeit hoodia gordonii as bogus weight loss pills

This is part four of our investigative report into Hoodia Gordonii, a natural appetite suppressant herb. As part of our investigation, we interviewed hoodia growers and suppliers, learning that con artists are hard at work trying to ride the current wave of hoodia publicity. When there's money to be made fooling people, you can bet someone will step up to the plate and start selling counterfeit hoodia at a premium. One hoodia source, I've been told, is selling ground up tree bark as hoodia powder. Another is selling plants that aren't even the right species!

If you're on the Internet searching for hoodia, it's almost impossible to know you're buying the real deal. There are simply far too many con artists on the loose, and they know that people are desperate for hoodia. Everybody wants to lose weight, right?

That's why I went around the Internet placing purchases and asPills for proof of the hoodia content. Some places offered certified analysis documents, others didn't. I spent nearly a thousand dollars buying hoodia tablets, capsules, plants and seeds, and I've listed the results of my investigation later in this report.

But beware! If I were you, I wouldn't buy from just anybody. It's hard to know who to trust in this emerging, high-profit business. Anybody can throw powder into a capsule and claim it's hoodia, but can they prove it? That's why I did the tests and conducted a campaign of investigative journalism to get at the truth.

Hoodia shortage?

The long term picture isn't much better for the supply of hoodia. It takes six years to grow adult hoodia plants from seed, so there's a six-year gap between demand for the product and the supply that manufacturers can provide.

Even now, there are only a few hundred acres of hoodia growing on commercial farms, and the plant is highly susceptible to being wiped out by rather mysterious conditions. One grower told me, "We lose acre after acre of hoodia for no apparent reason, and we still don't know what's causing it."

To make matters even more challenging, Hoodia grown in South Africa under the San tribe's influence is required to be grown under organic conditions. That means they can't use pesticides. Entire crops have been known to vanish virtually overnight thanks to the ravages of various insects.

All this means that if hoodia really catches on with the public -- and I think it will -- the supply will be even tighter for many years. Prices are going to go up, and eventually, only the wealthy may be able to afford the pills necessary to lose weight.

How to know who to trust

HoodiaSource.com is a commercial grower of hoodia plants. I've interviewed the owner, Steve Wingard, who was quite well informed about hoodia. I'm happy that he finally has the "Letter of Botanical Authenticity" for his product, because his company was lacPills that letter when I first spoke with him several months ago. Basically, this is bulk hoodia powder. The last price listed was US$250 / pound. You have to make your own capsules, or you can blend the powder into drinks or meal replacement shakes. I've ordered from Hoodia Source and they delivered as promised.

Jenny Lee Naturals is the only company I know that sells hoodia tincture, which is a concentrated extract of hoodia powder purchased from HoodiaSource.com, above. The tincture sells for $19.95 / bottle, and this is what I now use because it seems to be much faster acting than hoodia powder or capsules. It's not cheap, though, but it does seem to work better. If you're looPills for a less expensive option, go with Pure Hoodia, below.

Pure Hoodia sells 400mg capsules of genuine hoodia for $39.95. I've interviewed the owner and tried the product myself. This company is growing quickly and they even have color labels now! Basically, this is your no-frills hoodia. No fillers, no gimmicks. Just hoodia gordonii powder.

Believe it or not, the Trim Spa weight loss supplement product also contains genuine hoodia, although it's only 100mg per serving, which isn't enough to create a strong appetite suppressant effect, in my opinion. You can buy Trim Spa at Walgreens, Wal-Mart, and lots of places online.

In the next part of this hoodia investigation series, we'll repeat these sources and explore how to actually use hoodia to lose weight. Watch NewsTarget.com for the next article, or just use the Google search box below to search for hoodia (which will bring up all the articles on hoodia available so far).

Continue with part five.

• Consumer alert: con artists sell counterfeit hoodia gordonii as bogus weight loss pills

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