Spicing up your sex life may be as easy as going to your kitchen cupboard — although it might be pricey.
Saffron — at $3 to $5 a
gram in Toronto, regarded as the world’s most expensive spice — has
been shown in clinical studies to enhance sexual performance, according
to a University of Guelph review of natural aphrodisiacs studied in
about 150 international studies over the past 10 years.
Similarly, there’s evidence that panax ginseng (also called Korean ginseng) might have a salutary role to play in the bedroom.
“We’re going to raise more than a few eyebrows with this study,’’ says food-science professor Massimo Marcone, who co-authored the paper with graduate student John Melnyk.
While aphrodisiac claims for various plant products have been made for millennia, “the science behind the claims has never been well understood or clearly reported,’’ says Marcone.
The University of Guelph scientific review will appear in Food Research International.
The clinical studies
on panax ginseng, concluded that men with mild or moderate erectile
dysfunction showed significant improvement. The same studies indicated
menopausal women reported higher arousal frequency and satisfaction when
they took it.
Studies in male rats who were given saffron, meanwhile, showed an increase in sexual activity in male rats given the spice. A human study found that men who took 200 mg of saffron a day for 10 days reported improved erectile function and sexual satisfaction.
“The medicine chest has really moved from the bathroom to kitchen table,’’ says Marcone, observing the popularity of natural health products. That said, he emphasizes he is not advocating that people use the plants and animals that were the subjects of the studies he examined.
“We’re not trying to market anything with this review,’’ he says.
The review will certainly discourage people from using Spanish fly (a powder created from blister beetles, which contain a toxin). Its use as an aphrodisiac in traditional Chinese and African cultures has resulted in deaths. Studies in rats have also shown it can be lethal.
Marcone’s survey looked at studies involving yohimbine, a chemical from West Africa’s yohimbine tree, which has been used to increase libido and in the treatment of impotence. It is legal only by prescription in Canada. Some products containing yohimbine bark extra have been sold online and in some retail outlets but Health Canada has issued an advisory warning people that there is a risk of potentially serious side effects.
The male and female
libido-enhancing properties of the muira puama plant of Brazil and the
maca root (sold over the counter by Canadian retailers) from a member of
the mustard family found in the Andes are also attested to in a number
of studies reviewed by Marcone.
Cloves, sage and nutmeg have had sexually stimulating effects in clinical studies in rats, but Marcone has encountered no research on humans.
Although chocolate has a reputed aphrodisiac effects, he says he found no study supporting this. He adds that certain ingredients in chocolate, such as phenylethylamine, “can affect serotonin and endorphin levels in the brain,’’ which can improve mood, he says.
sumber dari: thestar.com
