We’ve already written a couple of times about the testosterone boosting effect of onion juice. It has an immediate effect in lab animals, but it’s not clear whether the same is so for humans. The human stomach often finds it difficult to take Allium cepa juice, which means that straight supplementation is out of the question. The supplements industry may have an answer however: an animal study published in Acta Poloniae Pharmaceutica by researchers from Indore, India suggests that onion extracts also boost testosterone levels.
We’ve already written a couple of times about the testosterone boosting effect of onion juice. It has an immediate effect in lab animals, but it’s not clear whether the same is so for humans. The human stomach often finds it difficult to take Allium cepa juice, which means that straight supplementation is out of the question. The supplements industry may have an answer however: an animal study published in Acta Poloniae Pharmaceutica by researchers from Indore, India suggests that onion extracts also boost testosterone levels.
Like the Jordanians we wrote about yesterday, the researchers at Smriti College of Pharmaceutical Education in India were looking for a cheap and natural remedy for men suffering from impotency. And like the Jordanians the Indians also did an experiment with male rats, giving them 10 mg paroxetine per kg bodyweight daily.
Paroxetine reduces sexual functioning in male rats. The researchers then studied whether an onion extract brought an improvement in sexual performance.
The Indians made the extract themselves. The information below shows how.
Ethyl acetate [chemical structure on the right] is the active ingredient in nail varnish remover. It’s also found – in very small quantities – in sweets, perfumes and fruit.
The researchers gave their lab animals 200 mg extract per kg bodyweight per day orally for a week. The human equivalent of this dose would be about 2-3 g extract per day.
At the end of the week, the researchers put sexually receptive females in the males’ cage. Then they counted the number of seconds it took for the males to mount the females [Mount Latency], for penetration to occur [Intromission Latency] and for ejaculation to take place [Ejaculation Latency].
The lower the number of seconds, the better the animals’ sexual performance. As you can see in the figure below, the extract improved the rats’ sexual performance.
The researchers also counted how often the males mounted the females [Mounting Frequency], how often they penetrated the females [Intromission Frequency] and how often they ejaculated [Ejaculation Frequency]. Once again, the onion extract improved the sexual performance of the rats that had been given paroxetine.
Lastly, the researchers also measured the amount of time the rats needed after ejaculation before they were ready for a second round of copulation [Post Ejaculatory Interval]. The ‘recovery time’ was longer in the paroxetine group than in the control group, but was shortened when onion extract was administered. [Click for figure]
“The Post Ejaculatory Interval is considered an index of potency, libido and the rate of recovery from exhaustion after mating”, the researchers write. “Therefore, the significantly decreased Post Ejaculatory Interval in ethyl acetate fraction treated male rats may be attributed to libido as compared to paroxetine treated group.”
“In conclusion, the present study has demonstrated that Allium cepa bulb ethyl acetate fraction has potential to restore the normal sexual behavior in experimental animal.”
Management of drug induced sexual dysfunction in male rats by ethyl acetate fraction of onion.
Abstract
The present study aimed to investigate the effect of ethyl acetate fraction of A. cepa bulb on mating behavior in paroxetine-induced sexually dysfunction male rats. Sexual dysfunctions such as decreased libido, delayed orgasm, difficulties in maintaining an erection, and inhibition of ejaculation are common side effects of paroxetine. A. cepa bulb ethyl acetate fraction (200 mg/kg) was administered orally in paroxetine-induced sexually impaired male rats for 7 days. At the end of 7th day, mount frequency (MF), intromission frequency (IF), ejaculatory frequency (EF), mount latency (ML), intromission latency (IL), ejaculatory latency (EL) and post-ejaculatory interval (PEI) were the parameters observed. Results showed that in relation to the paroxetine treated group, ethyl acetate fraction, significantly restored the normal sexual behavior as evident from increased MF, IF, EF and reduced ML, IL, EL and PEI.
PMID: 23614288 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]
