Efficacy And Safety Of Common Ingredients in Aphrodisiacs Used For Erectile Dysfunction: Maca

"It is rich in nutritional value and is a safe and good tonic." "It took 30 days to restore a youthful body"... Recently, health products such as maca, maca wine, maca essence tablets, and maca dried fruit tablets have been advocated to strengthen the body. It has the functions of improving the body, refreshing the mind, regulating the endocrine system, etc., while "improving sexual function and improving fertility" is mostly placed in first place in the propaganda. Does maca really have such a magical effect?

Real TCM Products for Improving Sexual Function

Maca hot market

Maca is native to the Andes Mountains of South America. Its rhizomes are shaped like small round radishes. There are three kinds of yellow, purple and black. The value produced in Peru is the highest.

The bulbous head like garlic, with dense leaves on it and a long root sticking out from the bottom, looks a bit like a combination of gastrodia and ginseng... Through the post-processing of the merchant, it is used to slice and make tea, or Grind into powder to make capsules.

Improving Sexual Function Cistanche

How is the sales of maca in the market? A few days ago, the reporter visited supermarkets, local specialty sales stores, and pharmacies and found that many stores put maca in a prominent position. In addition, some maca derivatives such as maca wine and maca essence tablets also sell well.

On the Internet, maca sales are even more popular. In China, the reporter searched for the keyword "Maca" and found 52,100 related links. The price of dried maca of the same specification ranges from ten yuan to thousands of yuan, and the price of dried maca of the same specification also ranges from a few hundred yuan per catty to nearly 6,000 yuan per catty, and the price difference is as high as dozens of yuan. times.

in a top-selling

In the treasure store, the reporter found that a certain brand of maca essence tablets sells for 68 yuan per bottle, with a monthly sales of 36,338 pieces, and promotes that maca is recommended by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, FDA, and NASA on the Internet.

The reporter checked and found that on the Internet propaganda words, various businesses basically advertise the efficacy of maca. It is not only rich in vitamins and minerals, but also has the effects of improving sleep, improving memory, improving immunity, and regulating endocrine. Among the various promotions for the "magical effects" of maca, "improving sexual performance" is the most eye-catching. Many businesses claim that it can "improve male libido, improve sexual function, and treat infertility".

Maca is just a new resource food

Is Maca food or medicine? According to "Wikipedia", maca is a food that both humans and animals can eat. But maca contains glucosinolates, which, when ingested in large amounts, will react with iodine in food, causing people to suffer from goiter.

According to the data, in 2002, the Ministry of Health officially approved the entry of maca into China; in May 2011, the No. 13 announcement of the Ministry of Health approved maca powder as a new resource food. The so-called new resource food refers to the newly developed, newly discovered and newly introduced items in my country that have no eating habits, meet the basic requirements of food, and are non-toxic and harmless to the human body, such as ginseng and aloe vera. In other words, maca is currently officially defined as an ordinary ingredient, no different from radish and cabbage.

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Gong Hongbin, a national second-level public nutritionist, introduced that the fresh root of maca can be fried and eaten with meat or other vegetables, or it can be cooked and eaten with water or milk after drying. The local indigenous people in Peru often add honey and fruit to squeeze the fresh root. The juice is consumed as a beverage.

There is no evidence-based medicine for maca aphrodisiac

Does taking maca really have a magical "aphrodisiac" effect? Zhang Zhichao, chief physician of the Andrology Center of Peking University First Hospital, said that as a plant, its extract contains a variety of nutrients and also has high nutritional value. After eating, it does have a certain nourishing effect. However, there is no evidence-based medical research to prove that maca has the effect of improving sexual function, nor is maca used as a drug in clinical medicine to treat male sexual dysfunction and infertility and other reproductive system diseases.

Improving Sexual Function Cistanche

Zhang Zhichao pointed out that the quality of maca health products is uneven at present. If consumers eat maca health products and have obvious improvement in sexual function, they need to be vigilant about whether the purchased products contain contraband. "For example, the defunct Ant Lishen Company advertised that its products can effectively improve male sexual function, but its testing found that the products contained sildenafil at prescription concentrations. Sildenafil and some prescription drugs containing nitrates (such as nitroglycerin) or prohibited substances ( such as amyl nitrate), may lead to a significant reduction in blood pressure to an unsafe level, threatening human health."

Here Wecistanche also reminded that if a man has stubborn sexual dysfunction, he must go to a regular hospital or professional physician to find a scientifical method.