Materials, Methods & Technologies, Volume 6, 2012

Rezumat: In this paper fresh medicinal plants that are popularly believed to have aphrodisiac properties namely Tacca involucrate, Imperata cylindrical, Cyperus esculentum, Momordica charantia, Garcinia kola, and Fadogia agrestis were collected in the form of stem bark, nuts, fruits, seeds, and roots. Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) was applied for multi-elemental determination of six aphrodisiac herbs used as treatment of Sexual dysfunction. Concentrations of twenty two elements Al, As, Ba, Br, Ca, Co, Cr, Cs, Dy, Eu, Fe, Hf, K, La, Lu, Mg, Mn, Na, Rb, Sb, Sc, Sm, Ta, Th, Ti, U, V, Yb, and Zn have been determined by short and long irradiation with a thermal neutron flux of 11 -2 -1 5*10 ncm s , and the spectra analyzed using WINSPAN 2004 software package. Several recent researches indicate that impaired sexual function which is now a common problem may be improved by Iron and Zinc supplements. Our result shows that -1 Fadogia agrestis (black aphrodisiac) recorded high Zn (123 ± 11 ȝgg ) which was more than the -1 -1 amount (95 ȝgg ) in Jaipal sex tonic, (92.02 and 84.24 ȝgg ) in the popular aphrodisiac Panax gingseng and Radix codonopsis respectively. The level of K in Imperata cylindrica, and Tacca -1 -1 involucrata, was 19,170 ȝgg and 19,340 ȝgg respectively. These values are about three times that of Aphrodisiac powder. The present study can be used to some extent to assess the safety of aphrodisiac herbs in the final formulation. Quality control and quality assurance of the method was tested by analyzing two Standard Reference Materials (IAEA-359 and SRM-1573) simultaneously with the samples.