Nutritional aphrodisiacs: Biochemistry and Pharmacology

Abstract

In 2022, the global prevalence of erectile dysfunction (ED) was estimated to be at least 150 million cases. This number is greatly suspected to be underestimate as most men withhold information about ED. Also, about 15% of world population have infertility troubles, and male factors are responsible for almost half of these cases. Studies have shown that the quality of semen has decreased in the past several decades owing to various health factors and environmental toxicants. The current medical interventions involve the inhibition of phosphodiesterase 5 which suffer from serious side effects and costly. One of the popular and most sought interventions are the natural and nutritional remedies as they are foods in essence and potentially with no harm to the body. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to provide a review of the most common nutritional aphrodisiacs with increasing libido and fertility highlighting the potential active constituents as well as the underlying mechanisms.

Keywords: Aphrodisiac foods; Aromatase inhibitors; Erectile dysfunction; Infertility; Testosterone.

Graphical abstract

Fig. 1

The most common risk factors of ED along with some examples.

Fig. 2

Different actions of testosterone on different organs of the body.

Fig. 3

Mechanism of testosterone synthesis and secretion mediated by hormonal regulation. StAR: steroidogenic acute regulatory protein, β-HSD: β -hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase.

Fig. 4

Biochemical interactions among neurons, vascular system and testes leading to penile erection.

Fig. 5

entry points of some foods to the urea cycle to utilize arginine for nitric oxide synthesis.

Fig. 6

summary of the mechanisms of probiotics-mediated spermatogenesis and immune modulation.

Fig. 7

Role of aromatase and its inhibition of male spermatogensis.

Fig. 8

Chemical structure of resveratrol (A), chrysin (B) and EGCG (C).