Caralluma Fimbriata is essentially a vegetable of daily use in tribal India. It can be eaten in several forms. Like a regular vegetable, it is cooked with spices and salt. It is used in preserves like chutneys and pickles and is even eaten raw. Indian tribesmen chew chunks of Caralluma Fimbriata to suppress hunger when they go out on a hunt. People in South India has found a way to suppress their appetites and at the same time enhance their endurance, and this is through the succulent Caralluma.
Recently, there are two clinical trials of a proprietary Caralluma fimbriata extract that has found the product to be without any serious side effects. The extract is described as a powder alcohol and water extract of the shade-dried aerial parts of the plant. In a more technical way of saying it: it contains not less than 10% total saponin glycosides, 3% bitters, and 25% total pregnane glycosides. Specific active components are noted to include luteolin-4?-O-neohesperidoside, kaempferol-7-O-neohesperidoside, sitosterol, tomentogenin, and pregnane glycosides, including caratubersides A and B and various boucerosides.
Laboratory testing and research also found out the following (please excuse the technical terms): In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial on potential weight-loss effects, the Caralluma extract was administered in gelatin capsules initially to 62 obese subjects, 50 of whom completed the 8-week study. Subjects were of both genders, in normal health, not taking medications, and had not dietary restrictions during the trial. Reasons why the 12 subjects failed to complete the trial and the dosage used and quantitative results are not found in the summary made available for this said report. According to the trial summary, reductions in the indicators of weight-loss were statistically significant and all adverse effects were gastrointestinal (constipation, moderate acidity, and flatulence), reported by both the placebo and the extract treatments groups, and transient (subsided within 7 days without further incidence).
