Sexual Stimulants

Apart from sex therapy, natural sexual stimulants - aphrodisiacs, mechanical aids and surgery, including silicon grafts and by pass surgery, are also employed to treat impotence.The term aphrodisiac the word is derived from Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of Love is applied to a drug which arouses sexual desire and produces an erection of the penis hard enough to penetrate the vagina and prolonged enough for successful intercourse. Man's search for the potency potion is as old as history and as futile as his search for the philosopher's stone. But nothing is impossible in science today, and perhaps in the near future a potency chemical may be discovered. There are over 50,000 genes in our body and at the speed at which genetic science is advancing, the gene for erection may soon be located in the DNA double helix and surgically manipulated to produce an erection!

The search for the magic potion arises from man's cultural indoctrination that the penis should be as hard as steel, that intercourse is the only method for complete sex, and that coitus is a must every time he is with his partner. Man has also the deep rooted desire to swallow pills and potions. 'The desire,' observes William Osler, 'to take medicines is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals.' An impotent man believes that if only he could find the right love potion he would again be a virile Casanova. He continues the futile search while each passing day prolongs the pangs of his impotence.

Vatsyayana was aware of impotence in some men and prescribed various concoctions and ointments like drinking milk mixed with sugar and a host of powdered roots and seeds to put life in a lifeless penis. A so called fail proof remedy which Vatsyayana recommended was a concoction of goat's testes boiled in milk and artistically administered to the chanting of certain slokas. As potency is in the mind, the herbs were temporarily effective.

The classical love potions (philtre, philtron) were well known to the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Persians and Chinese. 'The women of Thessaly,' says Dr. Van de Velde, 'were supposed to be the greatest adepts in philtres. The recorded ingredients were incredibly disgusting: the caul of a foal, other portions of the equine placenta, the vaginal discharge of mares in heat, the tongues of certain birds, pigeons' blood, fishes' roes and fins, insects, lizards, and other equally loathsome substances.' The various organs of animals were supposed to restore sexual vigor in sexually inadequate males and also enhance the powers of normal males who wanted an extra 'kick'.

In addition, to satisfy male lust, the testes from animals were given orally or its extract injected. Later, organ transplant was attempted. Brown Sequard attempted to graft unsuccessfully the tails of rats and cats into a cock's comb and concluded that 'every tissue possesses its vital properties in consequence of its peculiar organization'. Later he grafted the testes from young guinea pigs into old dogs to rejuvenate them. From old dogs to old men was but a hop, skip and jump for the crafty Russian surgeon in Paris, Voronoff. In the early part of this century he implanted the testes of apes in men to rejuvenate them. The transplanted testes from the monkey disintegrated in a few days; but its male recipient lived to tell tales of his new, though short lived, virility an entirely psychological delusion! Needless to add, gullible, affluent Indians also thronged to Voronoff.

Drugs to treat impotence

During the Middle Ages and succeeding centuries the accent was on drugs. Most were dangerous and produced harmful side effects and even death.Most common drugs are yohimbine, Spanish fly, nux vomica and its active compound strychnine, opium, marijuana and LSD.

SPANISH FLY AND ITS ACTIVE PRINCIPLE CANTHARIDIN: Mail's eternal quest and ingenuity in treating sexual inadequacy at last found a useful but potentially dangerous ally a small beetle called Spanish fly or blister bug, found mainly in the south coast of France and Portugal. An enterprising Spaniard probably crushed and sampled a few and got a prompt response a painful rock like erection and severe burning in the urine. He must have been jubilant initially if pain gives pleasure. He must have attempted coitus a number of times and discovered to his discomfiture that his penis was standing at attention all day and all night. Defiant women who dared to humble 'him' in three straight sets of sex were left exhausted, humiliated ' yet completely fulfilled. He must have drunk himself silly and swallowed pellets of opium to appease 'him'. Tired, restless and with urination very painful and scanty, death was deliverance from a terrible nightmare.

The story goes that if Spanish fly is dropped in the. drink of a woman she gets aroused instantly and has insatiable sexual fires which no male can extinguish. It is, however, more probable that the woman may die and the one who gave the so called potency potion faced a trial for manslaughter. The reason for this is that though cantharidin is a very potent aphrodisiac, the dose which produces tantalizing sexual desire can also kill a human being. There is no margin of safety. A small dose is sometimes used in animals to arouse sexual desire and make them mate but because they are heavier there is a lot of safety between the oral and the lethal dose. In medicine, a tincture of cantharidin is occasionally used to produce surface irritation of the skin but it is a highly dangerous drug when taken internally.

YOHIMBINE: The generous sexual endowment of the African male and his powerful physique were the envy. of European males and the secret longing of their better halves was to bed them. Naturally, male curiosity was aroused and was eager to discover the secret of their virility.

The whites discovered that the blacks were using the powdered inner bark of the African vohimbe tree. The highly suggestible European male mind believed that the bark if taken orally would restore lost manliness. Thousands of tons of yohimbine bark have been faithfully swallowed by millions of males all over the world. As usual, the power of suggestion worked, though yohimbine seldom did in fact it is a must in every potency pill manufactured by drug companies all over the world.

NUX VOMICA AND STRYCHNINE: In the early part of the 19th century, the dried ripe seed of the plant Strychnos nux vomica claimed the limelight as a stimulator of the nervous system. The active principle strychnine in very small doses increases the response to sexual stimulation but larger doses cause severe convulsions and death.

A reddish brown bitter drug obtained by over drying the milky exudates from unripe capsules of a kind of poppy, Papaver Somniferrum. Opium was well known to ancient Egyptian priests and is mentioned among the 700 drugs in the Ebers Papyrus, as early as 1550 B.C. It was used as a sedative, a soporific (to produce sleep) and a painkiller. Tincture of opium is also called Tincture Laudanum because of its many laudable qualities and uses which were popularized by the Swiss physician Paracelsus in the fifteenth century. Before the advent of modern tranquillizers, Tincture Laudanum was extensively prescribed to relieve the anxiety of a sexually inadequate male and improve his performance. It is, however,* habit forming. The growth of the opium plant is now banned in most countries of the world.

MARIJUANA AND LSD are drugs whose use is banned by law. Marijuana is a potent sexual stimulant. Individuals who have taken it report heightened sensual awareness and are supposed to scale giddy sexual heights. 'Occasional use of marijuana can enhance sexual desire,' claim researchers at the University of Texas. 'However, chronic smokers may find impairment of sexual function.' The active principle of marijuana is tetrahydrocannabinal or THC. Low doses of THC, claims Dr. Susan Dalterio of the University of Texas, cause rapid increase in the levels of testosterone. However, if high doses are given there is a rapid drop in the testosterone level in the blood. The tests were done initially on mice, but the researchers claim that the same result may be expected in man.

Similarly, LSD, apart from being a powerful and even dangerous psychedelic drug which produces altered states of consciousness, is claimed to produce a sexual 'high'. Both marijuana and LSD are banned drugs and not available for field trials. It is safer to be on the right side of the law and not use these potent drugs until their side effects are known and the law permits their use. Both may be habit forming.

EXCITIN: Dr. Baize Turner, a Swiss physician, toured Africa and attended a fertility rite session of the Congolese Baluba tribe. He had earlier read a report of the Belgian Government which described the habits of the Balubas and the fertility sessions where there is a display of limitless sexual abilities by their males. The report also mentioned that the tribes used a secret drug. Dr. Turner found that the magic drug was from a jungle plant called 'kaji kaji'.

A Swiss pharmaceutical firm in Zurich has isolated the active principle from the root of the kaji kaji and has been exploring its so called aphrodisiac possibilities of producing a long lasting erection. However, although erection is remarkably effective, even a small extra dose, as in the case of cantharidin, can cause organic frenzies and irritability, restlessness and insomnia.

One would pity the female partner with such a marathon performing male but, according to the experience of a majority of males, nothing dramatic happens. The palangtod merely provides, in a few cases, a psychological prop to the highly suggestible lecherous male. In cases of impotency, the aphrodisiac paan has usually no impact on the limp and lifeless organ. A few ingredients of the paan, like cardamom and choona, have digestive and carminative effects.

ALCOHOL: Alcohol is the most ancient and widely used aphrodisiac known to man. However, it is not generally known that it is a highly frequent cause of secondary, impotence in the male. As the drunken porter in Shakespeare says, drink provokes the desire but takes away the performance. This is because arousal and copulation are two different mechanisms and while alcohol stimulates the arousal mechanism, it depresses the copulation mechanism. But a little alcohol acts as a soothing tranquilliser and improves the sexual performance of a tense and overanxious male. Unfortunately, the line of demarcation is very thin between the quantity that acts as a stimulant and the amount that depresses sexual functioning and most individuals do not know how much is good for them.

'Which is the best aphrodisiac?' I am frequently asked. No aphrodisiac up to now has any permanent effect in producing a powerful sustained erection. Think it over carefully. The all potent, fail proof aphrodisiac is the alluring, enchanting, bewitching female form. Accept it gracefully and you need not vainly search for a potency potion in the flora and fauna around you.