"I'm looking at hoodia extracts. What does 10:1 or 20:1 mean? How is hoodia extract different from the whole plant? Which is more effective?"
An extract is created by processing an herbal or botanical ingredient – in this case, hoodia – and removing excess ingredients. "Extract" literally refers to extracting the active ingredient out of the plant itself.
10:1 extract means that, for every 10 parts of whole plant, the processing method discarded 9 parts and saved 1 part of the active ingredient. Theoretically, this process means that extract is 10 times more powerful than the whole plant.
The question of effectiveness is still up in the air. The San derive benefits from the entire hoodia plant, either fresh or dried. But in America, fresh hoodia is impossible to come by – our only choice is to turn to extracts, which last longer and can be more potent than the whole plant. Laboratory testing was done with hoodia extract rather than with whole hoodia.
On the other hand, proponents of whole foods argue that any food or botanical derives its fullest benefit from the synergy of its ingredients, active and inactive, working together. (This may explain for instance why the bushmen report that hoodia is an aphrodisiac, but that lab tests of hoodia extract have not noted any aphrodisiac effects.)
We think that hoodia extracts are the right way to go. They're certainly easier to come by than whole (dried) hoodia and seem to have an equally effective track record at suppressing appetite.
