Effects of Eurycoma longifolia Jack (Tongkat Ali) on the initiation of sexual performance of inexperienced castrated male rats

We studied the effects of Eurycoma longifolia Jack, commonly known as Tongk at Ali in Malaysia, on the initiation of sexual performance and the weights of sexual accessories in inexperienced castrated male rats. The doses of 2 00, 400 and 800 mg/kg body weight, which were extracted from E. longifolia Jack, were orally administered to the rats twice daily for 10 days prior to the tests and continued throughout the test period. Testosterone was used as a positive control after injecting 15 mg/kg daily subcutaneously for 32 days. Results showed that E. longifolia Jack produced a dose-dependent incr ease in sexual performance of the treated animals, but the E. longifolia Ja ck groups showed lower sexual performance in mounting, intromission and eja culation than the testosterone group. Further results also showed that E, l ongifolia Jack promoted the growth of both ventral prostate and seminal Ves icles as compared with the control, but the growth of sexual accessories at 800 mg/kg of butanol, methanol, water and chloroform fractions of E. longi folia Jack was less than that of testosterone treated group. The present st udy therefore gives further evidence of the folkuse of E. longifolia as an aphrodisiac.