No, Hoodia is a non-prescription medicine. It is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Therefore you can easily procure Hoodia, without going to a doctor and getting a prescription for it.
Hoodia has no known side effects and genuine Hoodia diet products are made from Hoodia Gordonii plant, procured from South Africa. Such companies display the C.I.T.E.S certificate and the Analytical Report in their site to show the authenticity of the Hoodia they use in the manufacture of their products. The fact that Hoodia diet supplements do not require a prescription make them very accessible to people who want to achieve weight loss and are tired of trying other diet pills, dieting and exercise. It will curb their appetite and over a period of time they will see definite results in weigh loss.
Hoodia diet products may not be FDA approved, but the use of Hoodia to achieve weight loss has been studied and confirmed in the clinical studies conducted by the giant pharmaceutical company Phytopharm. So consumers can rest assure that serious research has gone into the use of Hoodia as a means for weight loss, but Phytopharm is yet to release it’s Hoodia weight loss products. Other manufacturers of Hoodia diet product make use of Hoodia in the form of dried powder which is used to make pills or capsules or they make use of extracts.