Aphrodisiac Activity of Kaempferia parviflora

Problem statement: The increasing prevalence of sexual dysfunction and the limitation of therapeutic efficacy nowadays give rise to the requirement of novel therapeutic strategy. Kaempferia parviflora or Krachai-Dun has been long term used in Thai traditional folklore to treat this condition. Unfortunately, no scientific document is available until now. Therefore, this study was undertaken to determine the effect of this medicinal plant on male sexual behavior of aging rats subjected to stress. Approach: Aging rats were divided into 2 groups; the vehicle+stress and the K.parviflora+stress. All animals were administered the assigned substance 45 m before they were subjected to the 12-hr stress exposure for 3 weeks. They were determined male sexual behaviors including both latency and frequency of mounting, intromission and ejaculation behaviors after single dose and every week until the end of experimental period. In order to investigate the possible underlying mechanism, we also determined the alteration of DA1-immunopositive stained neurons density in hypothalamus. Results: Our results showed that after the single administration of the plant extract, the intromission frequency increased, it was also found the rats subjected K.parviflora treatment significantly increased the frequency of mounting, intromission and ejaculation while decreased the latencies of all sexual behaviors mentioned earlier. Moreover, K.parviflora also increased D1-immunopositive stained neurons density in hypothalamus. Therefore, the aphrodisiac activity of K.parviflora might be attributed in part to the enhanced dopaminergic function in hypothalamus. Conclusion: Present findings provide experimental evidence that the crude extract of K.parviflora can enhance male sexual behaviors. Therefore, it will be further developed as the functional food or health product for men especially for men who are risk for sexual dysfunction.