IN northern Nigeria, many adult citizens take both orthodox sexual stimulants with Burantashi, a locally prepared aphrodisiac. Also, “suya” (grilled red meat) is often habitually consumed with large amounts of onions.
Experts, in a study, said that people who relish suya and large amounts of onions need to be cautioned not to eat this delicacy at the same time that they are on orthodox aphrodisiacs because such a practice or habit may not give the desired enhanced sexual stimulatory effect.
Also, the common practice of using herbal sexual stimulants like kola nut and bitter kola with prescribed drugs may not always be beneficial. This would give no beneficial effect to further boost sexual stimulation.
Suya is spiced with Yaji, a mixture of spices like ginger, cloves, garlic, finely ground roasted groundnuts and ground pepper. It also contains monosodium glutamate and sometimes fine cornmeal.
Scientists say that Yaji or its components can boost male fertility when consumed in moderate quantities without known condiments such as monosodium glutamate. The spice combination found in Yaji makes it a good flavouring ingredient for different foods and dishes, which explains its massive consumption in northern Nigeria.
Yaji component spices have been documented in the treatment of male sexual dysfunction in Ayurvedic medicine. In fact, the Hausa male folks believe that some traditional or herbal aphrodisiacs such as Yaji, hakinmaye, and stimi help to enhance sexual performance, a belief that has made these spices highly consumed by men, most especially in the northern part of Nigeria and in Niger Republic, for their supposed effects on sexual stimulation and stamina.
This was contained in a 2020 study that assessed the aphrodisiac effects of four Nigerian ethnomedicinal plants. These are white onion, garlic, bitter kola and kola nut used in Nigeria for enhancement of libido and erectile dysfunction. It was in the journal, Annals of Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
Aphrodisiac is any drug, food or food products (e.g. chocolate), tropical rubefacient that stimulates sexual desire, sex drive or sexual pleasure. The continued use of plants and their products in the management of sexual dysfunction and enhancement of libido, and recently world-wide as supplements, has generated some scientific interests.
For instance, the aphrodisiac activity of yohimbine plant has been known before the last century. Its dried stem bark is widely used in north-eastern Nigeria for the treatment of erectile dysfunction and as an aphrodisiac, while its concoction is traditionally used to treat loss of libido.
For the study, different amounts of the extracts of the white onion, garlic, bitter kola and kolanut were administered to six groups of male rats. Salt solution and testosterone were negative and positive controls, respectively. Another group received testosterone (1 mg/kg, sc) and 10 min later, the extract (100 mg/kg, sc).
Eight hours thereafter, the male rats were introduced to females and tests to such things as the way they mount, erection, frequencies of mount, ejaculatory and so on.
Although both extracts of garlic and white onion were confirmed as sexual stimulants in this study, they found that their intake with testosterone would significantly inhibit increased sexual activities elicited by the standard drug.
On the other hand, concomitant administration of garlic or white onion and tadalafil (5 mg/kg) was reported to produce no significant effects on the sexual activities elicited by tadalafil, the standard sexual stimulant used in the study.
Hence, they declared that “in achieving the maximal sexual stimulation given by testosterone, co-administration of testosterone and the Allium species is contraindicated.”
Equally, the study found that the testosterone induced increased sexual frequencies were comparable to those of bitter cola but significantly higher than those mediated by white onion, garlic and kola nut. Only bitter cola consistently gave reduced latencies that were either significantly lower or comparable to those of testosterone.
Also, intake of testosterone at the same time with white onion and garlic bulbs significantly inhibited the effects of standard drug; kola nut showed some enhancement of effects, while bitter cola had no effect.
Although from the study, the testosterone was a better aphrodisiac than the kola nut and bitter kola and provided justification of the use of these kolas as sexual stimulants and aphrodisiacs, they declared that garlic was a better sexual stimulant than white onion.
Moreover, the ability of bitter cola to significantly increase the sexual frequencies in the animal study, they said may indicate that it has higher ability to increase sexual arousal (desire) and ability to copulate (sexual frequency) than that of kola nut.
However, they reasoned “Therefore, the aphrodisiac mechanism of action of bitter kola could not be due to its low caffeine content.”
