Posted: 02/09/2007--25/11/2008 || Rate this Article: 3 || Views|| Sign In || Register ||Hello Guest
You've heard how effective hoodia diet pills can be to suppress appetite and help you lose weight, but at $60 per bottle you tell yourself there has to be a cheaper way to get your hands on it. Why not grow your own hoodia plant? That would be ideal, but unfortunately it is impossible to grow your own supply.
The hoodia gordonii plant is found only in the Kalahari Desert of South Africa. It is a common mistake to refer to it as a hoodia cactus, but it is technically classified as a succulent. There are many varieties of the plant, but only hoodia gordonii contains the active ingredient that suppresses appetite.
Hoodia gordonii is a slow-growing plant that takes about three years to grow to a height where it can be harvested. In addition, it will not grow in regular soil. It requires well-drained sandy soil like the soil found in the deserts of South Africa.
The hoodia plant has fleshy, finger-like stems and has blooming flowers. The scent of the flowers attracts flies, which are necessary to pollinate the plant. The scent given off by the flowers has been compared to rotting or burning flesh. Even if you could grow your own supply, imagine the flies and stench you'd have to put up with!
Hoodia has been traditionally grown in the wild. Given its tremendous popularity, manufacturers have been trying to grow it commercially to keep up with demand. The commercial growing of hoodia gordonii has had limited success, however. In fact, there are only a few hundred acres throughout the world devoted to the commercial growing of it.
While the hoodia plant does well in the wild, it has proven to be difficult to grow commercially. It seems to be especially vulnerable to rot and mysterious diseases. Crops are ruined overnight and the growers don't even know why. Furthermore, the foul odor of its flowers and the flies it requires for pollination makes it undesirable for most growers to work with.
In addition to the challenges of growing hoodia gordonii commercially, seed providers have been left with virtually no stocks. The prices of the seeds have skyrocketed due to the limited supply. If you find seeds for sale online, be wary as most are probably fakes or are different varieties of hoodia. Only the hoodia gordonii variety acts as a powerful appetite suppressant.
Since growing your own hoodia plant isn't an option, the only way to get your hands on hoodia gordonii is to take diet pills that contain it. They are expensive, but given the high demand and limited supply, the prices will only continue to increase. If you're considering them, now would be the time to try them before they become completely out of your financial reach.
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