The CITES Certificate: One Key to Finding Pure Hoodia Gordonii
The CITES Certificate: One Key to Finding Pure Hoodia Gordonii by Reagan Miers
If you are in the market for hoodia diet pills, you have probably heard about CITES certificates. CITES certificates can help you locate pure hoodia gordonii products and steer you away from products that don’t use pure hoodia. I often wonder how many consumers really understand what CITES certificates are all about and what they represent in the hoodia market. I hope this article will shed some light on the topic for you.
As you probably already know, the hoodia gordonii plant is in high demand. But, did you know that it is a protected species and it’s in limited supply? Until recent years the cactus like plant only grew in the wild in South Africa. But, due to the increased demand for the plants weight loss effects, many people have taken to farming the plant. In order to protect the plant and the San people who have an interest in their native plant, the South African government has put regulations on the hoodia gordonii plant. This means there are licenses, regulations and controls for the growing, harvesting and exportation of the plant.
CITES certificates are one of the basic controls put in place to protect the endangered hoodia plant. There are other documents that are required as well, but for the purposes of this article I’ll only address the CITES certificate. CITES refers to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and is an international agreement between governments. Their goal is to ensure that international trade does not threaten the survival of endangered species.
In order for a company to legally export hoodia gordonii from South Africa, an export permit from CITES must be obtained. Every shipment exported from South Africa must be accompanied by a CITES permit. These permits expire in six months, but the expiration period only pertains to the actual shipment of hoodia gordonii out of South Africa. In other words, a supplier has six months from the time they are issued a CITES permit to actually ship the hoodia gordonii out of South Africa. If they don’t and the shipment of hoodia sits in the port, the supplier must reapply for a new permit.
There has been a lot of confusion about the dates on CITES permits. Some people are made to believe that the dates on these permits must be “current” or the company involved in the selling of hoodia gordonii is shady or lying. A CITES certificate that is outdated or old is just that - which means the six month window of exportation has expired.
When someone exports hoodia gordonii from South Africa, the original CITES permit stays with the inventory until it is gone. If a supplier exports thousands of kilograms of hoodia on one permit, they may not sell out of it for months and months. Yes, the date on the CITES permit will be expired, but the permit itself is still valid and proves the hoodia gordonii is legal and authentic. Just because a CITES permit may have expired doesn’t mean the plant that is being used is a fake, or that shady practices are involved in the business.
Something that is important for you to know is a CITES certificate may have a different company’s name on it than the company you are purchasing the hoodia products from. This means you may go to the XYZ Company to purchase hoodia supplements and upon viewing their CITES certificate you see the supplier’s name is ABC Company. The names on the CITES permits may not always match up.
There are only a few suppliers who are issued CITES permits. Supplement companies then buy their hoodia gordonii from these few suppliers. In the example above, Supplier Incorporated is listed on the permit so that means they were the actual supplier that exported the hoodia gorodnii. Helen’s Health Company is displaying a CITES certificate issued to Supplier Incorporated so that means Helen’s Health purchased the hoodia gordonii they use in their products from Supplier Incorporated.
Finally, just because a CITES certificate is displayed on a website doesn’t mean the company uses as much authentic hoodia gordonii as they claim. Hoodia products are classified as supplements so they are not regulated. As a result, companies can make claims that aren’t necessarily true. For example, you may be interested in a hoodia diet pill that contains 500mg of hoodia gordonii per capsule. You go to the company’s website and sure enough, they display a CITES permit so you immediately think the product is authentic.
All the CITES permit is meant to convey is the supplier had permission to export a certain amount of hoodia gordonii out of South Africa by a certain date. Once it arrives at the companies that are packaging hoodia products, they can do whatever they want with it. They can claim they are selling a pill that is 500 mg of pure hoodia gordonii, but it may only contain 150mg or 250mg.
Now that you have a better understanding of what the CITES certificate is and what its role is, you know why looking for one is important when trying to find authentic hoodia gordonii diet pills and products.
Did you know that the CITES certificate is just one of thirteen items to look for when you buy hoodia pills? Get the detailed list of what to look for and read reviews of the best hoodia here.
Tips On Hoodia Weight Loss Products
Although quite a rare plant, the Hoodia cactus has become very famous in a relatively short space of time; the potential of this plant is even getting experts excited. Of course it was only a matter of time until the diet industry added Hoodia weight loss products to their range; increasing numbers of people who want to shed pounds are using products containing extracts of this plant. Its origins are not a secret but its primary growing place is not known to many people that use it on a regular basis.
Hoodia Gordonii is a particular variety of plant which suppresses the appetite. It is only this type of Hoodia cactus that appears to possess this quality, despite there being twelve other varieties of the plant that can be found in the remote regions of South Africa.
For quite some time this remarkable cactus was studied by scientists and trials carried out on people to ascertain how effective it really was at suppressing the appetite. In fact a group of workers with the BBC while on tour, each consumed a leaf of Hoodia. Not one of the suffered any ill effects or felt an urge to eat for the remainer of the day.
Using weight loss products that have the extracts from the Hoodia plant, people have happily exclaimed the complete absense of any ill effects when they have used them. Alot of other appetite suppressants can not make that assertion.
Not only does it suppress the desire to eat but it also ensures that the correct amount of energy is supplied, so the user does not become tired as happens with some other products.
Wonderful as it is, it does not mean that you should stop eating healthily or drinking regularly. For people with unnaturally large appetites that are prone to putting on weight then the Hoodia weight loss pill is a safe way to control the desire to eat; although, it would not be healthy to stop eating altogether. Ideally, this is how Hoodia should be used, especially in obese people, just to control how much they eat.
An important point to make is that weight control products containing real extracts of this plant are expensive because the cactus is not common. With a simple search performed on the Internet you will find dozens of Hoodia weight loss treatments that come in a variety of promotional offers.
The chances are, these will not contain any of the plant at all, or at best, they will contain low doses that will be ineffectual. When you find something that appears too cheap to be genuine, think twice before you order it over the Internet. Real Hoodia is worth every penny, but unauthentic products may do more harm than good.