Make no mistake about one thing: this Hoodia lookalike cactus is being harvested from the wild in South Africa and sold to American nutritional supplement companies as Hoodia Gordonii, the weight loss appetite suppressant supplement. That's why you have to be so careful when purchasing hoodia: you might be buying powdered cactus weed.
The Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, through the
Agricultural Resource Board (ARB), is empowered to protect any plant
species in accordance with the Agricultural Resource Conservation Act.
Deputy Permanent Secretary Tutu Tsiang said that her ministry had
submitted instructions to the Attorney General's Chambers to come up
with regulations to be made under section 16 of Agricultural Resource
Conservation Act to protect Hoodia currori, known as seboka or
sekgophane.
The plant harvested was an American cactus; Trichocereus spachianus,
known as monnagaatshwarwe, that has been declared a noxious weed in
South Africa.