Aphrodisiac activity of the seeds of mucuna pruriens

K.V. Anantha Kumar, K.K. Srinivasan, T. Shanbhag, S. Gurumadhava Rao

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32 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Mucuna pruriens seed powder when administered in a dose of 75 mg/kg body weight daily as an aqueous suspension, increased the sexual activity of male albino rats considerably. The different components of copulatory behaviour vis. mount frequency, mount latency, intromission frequency and intromission latency were found to be influenced by the test drug. L-dopa, one of the constituents of the title plant was also reported to arouse sexual desire in patients suffering from Parkinson's disease. At 100 mg/kg body weight, though L-dopa was found to arouse sexual activity, the low content of this constituent (0.69%), could not account for the activity shown by the seed powder in the dose employed.
Original languageUndefined/Unknown
Pages (from-to)321-327
Number of pages7
JournalIndian Drugs
Volume31
Issue number7
Publication statusPublished - 1994

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