BBB
Well-known member
For those interested in Pink Magic you may want to read this post by Athony Roberts:
Back in 2008, a study was conducted on Massularia Acuminata (Massularia Accuminate = alternate spelling) and its effects on testosterone. The abstract was published online, and was reposted on several websites. In late 2009 and early 2010, I looked into it because Daniel Clough from At Large Nutrition was planning to add a test booster to his product line, and he had contacted me (long story) as the potential formulator for the product.
I looked into dozens of testosterone boosting herbs, and this one was on my list. Anyway, I purchased the full study and read it…and quickly decided that this herb had exactly ZERO potential to be used in a testosterone boosting nutritional supplement. It simply doesn’t raise testosterone very high, and even then, it can’t do it without taking impossibly high megadoses.
But, since most supplement buyers don’t purchase and read studies full studies (*when the abstract is available for free), the door was (and is) left open for it to be used in a nutritional supplement. I’ll tell you why it’s not going to work in a second, but first, I want you to check out the abstract:
J Ethnopharmacol. 2008 Aug 13;118(3):508-13. Epub 2008 May 28. Androgenic potentials of aqueous extract of Massularia acuminata (G. Don) Bullock ex Hoyl. stem in male Wistar rats. Yakubu MT, Akanji MA, Oladiji AT, Adesokan AA. Medicinal Plants Research Laboratory, Department of Biochemistry, University of Ilorin, PMB 1515, Ilorin, Nigeria. [email protected] Abstract The use of medicinal plants in the management of several ailments is gaining popularity nowadays. Massularia acuminata, one of such plants is commonly used as chewing sticks due to its antimicrobial activity and the aqueous extract of its stem as an aphrodisiac. Aphrodisiac activity in some plants may be due to androgen increasing property of its phytochemicals. AIM OF THE STUDY: This study therefore sought to assess the androgenic potentials of aqueous extract of Massularia acuminata stem in male rats for 21 days. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Male rats weighing between 220 and 260 g were completely randomized into four groups: A, B, C and D. Group A, the control received orally 1 ml of distilled water (the vehicle) while groups B, C and D were orally administered with 1 ml each corresponding to 250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg body weight of the plant extract, respectively for 21 days. Rats were sacrificed 24h after 1, 7 and 21 days. RESULTS: Compared with the control, extract administration at all the doses produced significant increase (P<0.05) in testes-body weight ratio, testicular protein, glycogen, sialic acid, cholesterol, testosterone, luteinizing and follicle stimulating hormone concentrations throughout the period of administration. Testicular gamma glutamyl transferase activities were decreased significantly (P<0.05) after the first dose and was sustained throughout the experimental period. CONCLUSION: The available evidence in this study suggests that aqueous extract of Massularia acuminata stem has androgenic potential which may stimulate male sexual maturation and enhance normal testicular function. PMID: 18602232 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
So, at first blush, it looks vaguely promising, right? But check out the dose required…the lowest dose examined in the study was 250mgs/kg! On a kg/kg (simple comparative bodyweight) basis you’ll need about 25 grams of the stuff per day for a 100kg (220lb) bodybuilder, going off the absolute lowest dose. The highest dose would require 100g/day based on a 220lb (100kg)human bodyweight. However, this is based on human weight versus rodent weight. Now, if we convert the rodent dose to the human dose equivalent using the accepted body surface area formula, we find that we need just over 4 grams per day. And that’s at the lowest dose examined – we’d double that dose for the 500mgs/kg (over 8 grams per day) and double it again for the 1,000mgs/kg dose (over 16 grams per day). Currently, only two companies (that I know of) are using this herb in a product, and the dose per serving is (at best) on par with (but likely lower than) even the lowest dose examined in the study (250mgs/kg), translated to anything resembling a human equivalent. The daily suggested dose (all of the daily servings added up) contained in the proprietary blends currently being sold on the market still isn’t likely to be equivalent to the lowest dose in the study.
In fact, even if the 250mg/kg equivalent dose were being used (and it isn’t), the testosterone boost provided would be 12%. But since nowhere near this dose is being used…have I made my point yet? The full study is much more interesting, because when we crunch the numbers, we find out that the rodents were being given an ungodly amount of this stuff, and barely getting any kind of decent test boost! So how much of a boost in serum testosterone did the herb provide? Well, we don’t know, because the study doesn’t tell us. Wait…what? Yeah, you read that correctly, the study doesn’t actually look at serum testosterone levels. So what about free testosterone levels? Well, the study doesn’t look at that either. The study examines intratesticular testosterone, LH, and a bunch of other stuff (testicular glycogen, testicular sailic acid concentration, etc…) but provides no hard data on how much of a real test boost the herb provided. So, as you can see, even if you were chocking down thousands of milligrams per day of the stuff, the rodent data suggests that after 21 days, your LH will get around a 60% boost (rodents in the control group were 1.27 and the 1,000mg/kg group ended up at 2.14) , and your testicular testosterone will go up about the same, roughly 60% (the rodents in the control group were 3.37, while rodents in the 1,000mg/kg group were 5.38 ng/dl). But of course, none of the companies using this ingredient are using anywhere near an effective dose. This is why I abandoned the idea of using this stuff in a product formulation, and focused my research and development elsewhere.
But as the saying goes, there’s a sucker born every minute, and no shortage of supplement manufacturers looking to scam them.
Back in 2008, a study was conducted on Massularia Acuminata (Massularia Accuminate = alternate spelling) and its effects on testosterone. The abstract was published online, and was reposted on several websites. In late 2009 and early 2010, I looked into it because Daniel Clough from At Large Nutrition was planning to add a test booster to his product line, and he had contacted me (long story) as the potential formulator for the product.
I looked into dozens of testosterone boosting herbs, and this one was on my list. Anyway, I purchased the full study and read it…and quickly decided that this herb had exactly ZERO potential to be used in a testosterone boosting nutritional supplement. It simply doesn’t raise testosterone very high, and even then, it can’t do it without taking impossibly high megadoses.
But, since most supplement buyers don’t purchase and read studies full studies (*when the abstract is available for free), the door was (and is) left open for it to be used in a nutritional supplement. I’ll tell you why it’s not going to work in a second, but first, I want you to check out the abstract:
J Ethnopharmacol. 2008 Aug 13;118(3):508-13. Epub 2008 May 28. Androgenic potentials of aqueous extract of Massularia acuminata (G. Don) Bullock ex Hoyl. stem in male Wistar rats. Yakubu MT, Akanji MA, Oladiji AT, Adesokan AA. Medicinal Plants Research Laboratory, Department of Biochemistry, University of Ilorin, PMB 1515, Ilorin, Nigeria. [email protected] Abstract The use of medicinal plants in the management of several ailments is gaining popularity nowadays. Massularia acuminata, one of such plants is commonly used as chewing sticks due to its antimicrobial activity and the aqueous extract of its stem as an aphrodisiac. Aphrodisiac activity in some plants may be due to androgen increasing property of its phytochemicals. AIM OF THE STUDY: This study therefore sought to assess the androgenic potentials of aqueous extract of Massularia acuminata stem in male rats for 21 days. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Male rats weighing between 220 and 260 g were completely randomized into four groups: A, B, C and D. Group A, the control received orally 1 ml of distilled water (the vehicle) while groups B, C and D were orally administered with 1 ml each corresponding to 250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg body weight of the plant extract, respectively for 21 days. Rats were sacrificed 24h after 1, 7 and 21 days. RESULTS: Compared with the control, extract administration at all the doses produced significant increase (P<0.05) in testes-body weight ratio, testicular protein, glycogen, sialic acid, cholesterol, testosterone, luteinizing and follicle stimulating hormone concentrations throughout the period of administration. Testicular gamma glutamyl transferase activities were decreased significantly (P<0.05) after the first dose and was sustained throughout the experimental period. CONCLUSION: The available evidence in this study suggests that aqueous extract of Massularia acuminata stem has androgenic potential which may stimulate male sexual maturation and enhance normal testicular function. PMID: 18602232 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
So, at first blush, it looks vaguely promising, right? But check out the dose required…the lowest dose examined in the study was 250mgs/kg! On a kg/kg (simple comparative bodyweight) basis you’ll need about 25 grams of the stuff per day for a 100kg (220lb) bodybuilder, going off the absolute lowest dose. The highest dose would require 100g/day based on a 220lb (100kg)human bodyweight. However, this is based on human weight versus rodent weight. Now, if we convert the rodent dose to the human dose equivalent using the accepted body surface area formula, we find that we need just over 4 grams per day. And that’s at the lowest dose examined – we’d double that dose for the 500mgs/kg (over 8 grams per day) and double it again for the 1,000mgs/kg dose (over 16 grams per day). Currently, only two companies (that I know of) are using this herb in a product, and the dose per serving is (at best) on par with (but likely lower than) even the lowest dose examined in the study (250mgs/kg), translated to anything resembling a human equivalent. The daily suggested dose (all of the daily servings added up) contained in the proprietary blends currently being sold on the market still isn’t likely to be equivalent to the lowest dose in the study.
In fact, even if the 250mg/kg equivalent dose were being used (and it isn’t), the testosterone boost provided would be 12%. But since nowhere near this dose is being used…have I made my point yet? The full study is much more interesting, because when we crunch the numbers, we find out that the rodents were being given an ungodly amount of this stuff, and barely getting any kind of decent test boost! So how much of a boost in serum testosterone did the herb provide? Well, we don’t know, because the study doesn’t tell us. Wait…what? Yeah, you read that correctly, the study doesn’t actually look at serum testosterone levels. So what about free testosterone levels? Well, the study doesn’t look at that either. The study examines intratesticular testosterone, LH, and a bunch of other stuff (testicular glycogen, testicular sailic acid concentration, etc…) but provides no hard data on how much of a real test boost the herb provided. So, as you can see, even if you were chocking down thousands of milligrams per day of the stuff, the rodent data suggests that after 21 days, your LH will get around a 60% boost (rodents in the control group were 1.27 and the 1,000mg/kg group ended up at 2.14) , and your testicular testosterone will go up about the same, roughly 60% (the rodents in the control group were 3.37, while rodents in the 1,000mg/kg group were 5.38 ng/dl). But of course, none of the companies using this ingredient are using anywhere near an effective dose. This is why I abandoned the idea of using this stuff in a product formulation, and focused my research and development elsewhere.
But as the saying goes, there’s a sucker born every minute, and no shortage of supplement manufacturers looking to scam them.
