Hoodia gordonii Images: Hoodia gordonii sample 06 top view.

This site is to provide information regarding the survey of wild Hoodia gordonii before harvesting is to take place. The survey was done in accordance with procedures prescribed by the Northern Cape Conservation department. The project was undertaken in 2006. Evidence of the plants assessed will be provided here. The exact locality of the property is withheld for conservation purposes. The plants were evaluated according to size and health.The minimum diameter before a plant could be harvested was set at 40 cm. This was done partly to protect smaller plants, but also because smaller plants had a tendency to contain a lower percentage of active ingredients. The approximate measurements of the plants were done with a marked piece of cane as the markings would show up clearly on a photograph. It must be noted that exact measurements were not necessary as only an indication of plant size was needed for decision making. The height as well as the width of the plants were estimated from the photographs. Adjustments were made to minimize errors due to parallax.

Certain Hoodia gordonii samples that met the basic criteria for harvesting, were not harvested. This may have been because of possible infections that were not spotted from the photographs or that the plant 'appeared' to be rather small besides the fact that the diameter was 40 cm+ .

The prescribed method for harvesting consisted of cutting off a quarter of the number of stems of a selected plant with a sterilized knife. Cuttings were made on the southern (or shady) side of the plant to prevent sunburn on the wounds. The wounds were treated with sulphur after cutting. The cuttings were made approximately 10 cm above the soil.

As prescribed by the conservation department, only every second suitable plant was harvested. On the property had to exist at least three areas where the density of plants equalled or exceeded 100 plants per ha (10,000 m sq).

On this particular property Hoodia gordonii grows more densily then on many other areas. Even so, it took considerable time to identify three locations where the density is 100 + plants per ha.

Only pictures of one of the selected harvesting sites will be published here for now.

Although care was taken to provide the correct information during the survey, Izimakana Industries accepts no responbility for errors occurring in the survey for whatever reason.