Hoodia Gordonii

Hoodia gordonii is a leafless spiny succulent plant with medicinal uses. It grows naturally in South Africa and Namibia. Hoodia gordonii was discovered and painted by Col. Robert Jacob Gordon in the vicinity of the Orange River in about 1779, and identified as a Stapelia, a closely related genus.

The use of Hoodia has long been known by the indigenous populations of Southern Africa, who infrequently use these plants for treating indigestion and small infections. However, it is their centuries old use of the meat of the plant to suppress appetite when making long hunting trips in the Kalahari Desert that has stimulated the most interest.

In 1977, the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) isolated the ingredient in Hoodia—now known as P57—which is responsible for its appetite-suppressant effect, and patented it in 1996. The CSIR then granted United Kingdom-based Phytopharm a license, and they collaborated with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer to isolate active ingredients from the extracts and look into synthesizing them for use as an appetite suppressant.

Green Tea Leaf Extract

Green tea is tea made solely with the leaves of Camellia sinensis that have undergone minimal oxidation during processing. Green tea originates from China and has become associated with many cultures in Asia from Japan and South Korea to the Middle East. Recently, it has become more widespread in the West, where black tea is traditionally consumed. Many varieties of green tea have been created in countries where it is grown. These varieties can differ substantially due to variable growing conditions, processing, and harvesting time.

Over the last few decades green tea has been subjected to many scientific and medical studies to determine the extent of its long-purported health benefits, with some evidence suggesting that regular green tea drinkers have lower chances of heart disease and developing certain types of cancer. Green tea extract rich in polyphenols and caffeine has been shown to be useful for "obesity management", since it induces thermogenesis and stimulates fat oxidation.

Caralluma Fimbriata

Caralluma fimbriata is a succulent plant in the family Apocynaceae. It has been eaten in rural India for centuries, raw, as a vegetable with spices, or preserved in chutneys and pickles, and is often found as a roadside shrub or boundary marker.

It has been used as a portable food and thirst quencher for hunting. It is also used for its purported ability to suppress hunger and appetite and enhance stamina. It is believed to have an effect on the appetite control centre of the brain. Tribesmen on a day's hunt will often only pack some Caralluma fimbriata to sustain themselves and hence it is commonly known as "famine food" in India.

Coix Seed

Job's Tears (Coix lacryma-jobi), Coixseed, adlay, or adlai, is a tall grain-bearing tropical plant of the family Poaceae (grass family) native to East Asia and peninsular Malaysia but elsewhere cultivated in gardens as an annual. It has been naturalized in the southern United States and the New World tropics. In its native environment it is grown in higher areas where rice and corn do not grow well. Job's Tears is also commonly, but misleadingly, sold as Chinese pearl barley in Asian supermarkets, despite the fact that C. lacryma-jobi are not of the same genus as barley (Hordeum vulgare).

Two varieties of the species are grown. Coix lacryma-jobi var. lacryma-jobi has hard shelled pseudocarps which are very hard, pearly white, oval structures used as beads for making rosaries, necklaces, and other objects. Coix lacryma-jobi var. ma-yuen is harvested as a cereal crop and is used medicinally in parts of Asia. It is also used alongside other herbs in traditional Chinese medicine.

Resveratrol

Harvard researchers may have found a way to counter the negative effects of a high-calorie diet loaded with trans fats. And it's done using one of natures finest products - grapes. This flavonoid (resveratrol) found in red grape skins, may soon become one of the most prized molecules on earth. It is so tiny that it penetrates the wall of almost any cell in an organism. It continues into the cell nucleus, to the cell's genetic machinery. There, resveratrol selectively switches on genes that aid the survival of an organism. It switches off genes involved in the initial and progression of disease, blocking replication of bacteria, virtues, fungi, and tumor cells.

HOW IT WORKS: Mitochondria are the little furnaces inside the nucleus of your cells that burn nutrients and fats into energy. Unfortunately, as we age, our mitochondria begin to deteriorate and our metabolism begins to slow. The good news is that resveratrol increases mitochondria production.

Resveratrol has also proven to be a highly effective antioxidant in regenerating skin cells and slows down or stops the free-radical induced aging of the skin.