A "New" Aphrodisiac On the Way

When human nature fails to sustain sexual satisfaction, maybe a help from nature at large can do the trick. It is trickery though until safety concerns can be confirmed on the positive side.

MOST likely, this new herbal aphrodisiac has not yet hit the town. But knowing the reputation of the Philippines in its love for natural food supplements with therapeutic claims, this new product may not take very long to reach us.

The name of the herb is maca, or scientifically, Lepidium meyenii. It belongs to the mustard family, but it is commonly grown in the Peruvian mountains of the Andes.

There, the herb had the reputation for enhancing fertility in humans and animals for centuries.

A study in 2007 identified lots of plant estrogens in its roots, explaining its reputation as a fertility drug and an aphrodisiac. It contains macaridine, macamides, macaene and gluosinolates as well as an alkaloid and some nutrients.

Last year, Byung-Cheul Shin of the Oriental School of Medicine in Pusan National University (Yangsan, South Korea) led a team of five researchers to make a thorough systematic review of all available studies on maca.

Of the close to 20 studies, only four passed their stringent selection criteria—a study in Italy involving males with mild erectile dysfunction; another in Peru involving healthy adult men; another in Australia involving postmenopausal women with moderate sexual dysfunction; and still another in UK involving male cyclists.

The Italian study used pulverized dehydrated maca roots at... [Read more]

This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 28 September 2011.

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