Hoodia gordonii (hg) is an extremely popular appetite suppressant as a hoodia diet pill or liquid hoodia, but the popularity of hg has become a problem in the way of weight loss companies ripping off the consumer. Due to the demand for hoodia gordonii, the South African government had to put restrictions on the trade of this native plant.

What does this have to do with getting scammed when you buy hoodia gordonii online?

This is where the con artist pro comes into play. Many hoodia gordonii weight loss pills and diet liquid extracts are made with inferior hoodia (which may be contaminated and capable of causing side effects). Also, when low amounts of hoodia gordonii are used by these con artists, p57 (the active ingredient in hoodia gordonii) is ineffective in weight loss.

There are some ways, though that you can avoid wasting your money and getting scammed when you buy hoodia gordonii online. When I looked for a hoodia gordonii weight loss product, I had to learn all about the following factors to determine whether or not my chosen product (HoodiThin) was the real deal.

I’ll tell you how I determined that the weight loss product Ive been using (HoodiThin) is the real deal. You need to be aware of the above when you buy hoodia gordonii plus you must look for the following factors.

CITES is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (hence the acronym!). A certification from CITES means that a company has been found to be a responsible trader of animal or plant products.

In other words, when you buy hoodia gordonii, you want to make sure that the company has a CITES Certification. It means that the company is allowed to trade with South Africa, so the hoodia gordonii they use in their weight loss product is 100% real and the best hoodia gordonii available. It hasn’t been purchased on the black market.

Remember that weight loss will not occur simply by taking a hoodia gordonii liquid or pill no matter how pure the hoodia gordonii is. What I want you to be on the look out for are weight loss companies that advertise their product without advising at least a bit on proper diet and exercise.

Weight loss surgery wouldnt work if you continued to overeat, right? Hoodia gordonii is meant to control your appetite and by doing this, you’ll be more likely to follow a weight loss diet.

The company site or weight loss forum should be able to show you these documents and reviews on their hoodia gordonii product.

Whether the weight loss product is hoodia gordonii or diet pills of another sort, bogus companies will often promote their product without giving practical advice on diet and exercise. You would’nt believe weight loss surgery would work if you could continue eating mass quantities of food, right?

Thanks to the considerable hype generated by the weight loss and diet pill industry about hoodia diet pills, it can sometimes be quite difficult to judge the quality of a product by looking at their high-gloss websites. One online commentator claims that between 60%-80% of all hoodia weight loss products are not what they claim, ranging from not entirely pure through to not even remotely close. You can read more about how to spot the genuine hoodia and how to identify shady operators by looking at some quality hoodia diet pill reviews.

There are six checks to prove that a company is selling pure Hoodia Gordonii appetite suppressant, and they should display all six certificates on their website. The first three are issued by authorities in South Africa and in your country authorising the purchase and shipping of the extract of an endangered species. The other three are certificates from independent scientific testing.

Any company that imports Hoodia Gordonii to the USA from South Africa must have – and should display – three official government certificates.

The first, known as the CITES certificate, is an authorisation to deal in an endangered species (such as Hoodia Gordonii). Do not deal with any company that does not display their CITES certificate prominently on their website.

The second certificate is a “Phytosanitary” permit issued by the government of South Africa permitting the dealer to remove the product from South Africa.

The third certificate is issued by the US Dept of Agriculture (and simply known as the USDA certificate) to permit the dealer to import the product into the USA. If the manufacturer claims to directly import Hoodia Gordonii from South Africa then they should be displaying this certificate on their website.

The Need For Independent Testing

With the increasing numbers of online hoodia sellers, most reputable manufacturers regularly submit their products to a well known independent testing facility which has the authority to certify genuine hoodia products. While there are four recognised labs that can do the testing, most companies seem to present certificates from Alkemist Labs in California.

There are three different tests to ensure the sample is what it claims to be, and unless you are a chemist yourself you don’t need to know much about them. They are known as HPTLC, HPLC and MM-DPD, with HPTLC being the most important. At the very least you should be able to see an HPTLC certificate, if not all three.

If the company does not display results certificates from an independent testing facility, do not buy from them. There are far too many unreliable dealers out there to take a risk on one that doesn’t display their testing certificates!

Finally, as a matter of good customer service you should expect that the company offers a toll free information line that will also handle orders (if you prefer the phone to buying online) and a clear refund policy if you’re not happy with the product.