Maca The Passion Plant from Peru

Is your love life limp of late? Feeling like your sex drive needs a tune-up? Maybe you don't need candlelight, incense, oysters, or zinc. Maybe what you—or your mate—needs is maca. A tuber used much like our potato, and the only crucifer (like broccoli and cabbage) native to the Americas, maca is the food staple of natives to the Peruvian highlands. To lucky Andeans: Maca is packed with nutrition, and has been known to improve sexual endurance, energy, and performance.

No kidding!—research shows that maca increases the reproductive rates and raises the sperm count and semen volume. In human studies, it has been known to improve both erectile and ovarian function.

Secrets of a Sexy Plant
When Spanish explorers arrived in Peru during the 16th century, they noticed that their livestock—particularly their horses—were becoming weak and unable to reproduce. This was probably due to the altitudes of the Peruvian highlands, an area where mountain reach 15,000 feet. Such high altitudes can cause female animals to produce inadequate amounts of estrogen, hampering fertility.

The Incan diet of the time consisted largely of maca. They used both tubers and tops, but especially tubers. The Incas advised the Spaniards to feed maca tubers to the ailing and infertile horses. So impressed were the Spaniards with the recovery of their animals, and the strength and virility of the Incan people, that reports back to the royal court included raves over this humble tuber, and maca soon became a valuable commodity.

Today, Maca's reputation as a natural way to boost virility and fertility is growing fast in North America. In a November, 1998 issue of the Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients, which includes numerous kudos for the plant's effects on sexual function, Gary Gordon, M.D., past president of the American College for Advancement in Medicine, calls maca nature's answer to Viagra. "I personally experienced an improvement in erectile tissue response," he says, attributing the effect to changes in steroid hormones. "Maca acts on men to restore them to a healthy functional status," says Gordon.  Maca Improves Sperm Count (Adobe Acrobat is required)

What the Research Shows
Peruvians claim that maca improves memory, combats anemia, and fights depression. Some researchers note that when the body is well-nourished, libido rises and depression abates; maca's nutrient value could explain some of these purported actions. The root, which tastes like butterscotch when it's roasted like a potato, can also be prepared into jam, broth, puddings, and juices, and contains five times more protein than a potato, four times more fiber, and less fat. It contains linoleic and oleic oils (two types of essential fatty acids) and essential amino acids (see "Maca's Make-Up").

Maca's actions on sexual function are better researched than its effects on mood and memory. A 1961 study showed that maca increased fertility in rats. Then came studies of guinea pigs, rams, and cows, each of which corroborated maca's fertility-enhancing effects. For example, maca significantly increased ram semen volume and sperm count. ORDER NOW