Men
and women are largely mindful of their sex drive. In their quest for
improved prowess in bed, many of them use aphrodisiacs or other related
substances.
Such substances that seek to stimulate
sex drive or stamina have been in existence for long, passed down from
generation to generation. Although aphrodisiacs can be used by both
sexes, their use is believed to be more common among men, particularly
those with sexual disorders like erectile dysfunction and premature
ejaculation.
In Lagos, the situation is, however, no
different from other places, as men continually strive to boost their
sexual performance and gain some bragging rights, which could come handy
during bar room banters with friends.
“There was a time that I asked around
for where I could get a good aphrodisiac when a babe that I once dated
boasted that I would not be able to handle her well (in bed),” recalled
an accountant, who identified himself as Olufemi.
Although the essence is primarily is to
contain sexual disorders, men without such disorders also sometimes take
the substances to push themselves to the limit during sex.
Investigations also showed that a
significant percentage of men take such substances for fun or to get
high, since some of the herbal mixtures are prepared with alcohol.
For instance, Bode, who until recently
was a fervent user of local aphrodisiacs, says that less than five per
cent of the drugs actually do the job. He claims that herbalists
sometimes visit sawmills to cut from logs of wood waiting to be sawn.
“Ordinary sawdust is what some of them (herbalists) go home with, in the name of finding herbs and backs of trees,” he said.
There are a number of roots and herbs
that have become popular with buyers of locally made aphrodisiacs,
particularly at motor parks, where they are sold by itinerant vendors on
foot and in cars. Herbalists stationed in their shops also have
aphrodisiacs available for prescription to customers.
Some of the popular ones include Ale,
Afato, Paraga, Opa-ehin, Ogbolo, Tanko-tanko, Gboin-gboin, Jedi-jedi,
Burantashi, Alomo Bitters and Osomo bitters.
Ramota, who hawks a herbal concoction
popularly called ‘doctor’ by her customers, says many of her customers
complain that pile (‘jedi-jedi’) is the cause of their poor sexual
performance.
“Some of them have jedi-jedi because of
the sweet things they eat; so once they take jedi-jedi herb, their
system becomes cleaner and they are able to perform better in bed,” she
declared in Yoruba.
Ramota argues that there is no effective
orthodox medicine for pile, stressing that that is the reason for the
huge customer base available for her products.
“Old, young, illiterate and educated
people patronise me although my biggest customers are commercial
motorists, okada riders (commercial motorcyclists) and artisans,” she
added.
According to Ramota, business is particularly good for the industry during the Valentine season.
But in contrast to Ramota’s itinerant
style, Sir Jimoh Herbal Centre in Ikeja comes across as more organised
and functional. Inside his shop are layers of shelves, on which sit
neatly packed fresh and dried leaves, along with different kinds of
roots and herbs, twined around separately.
Mr. Yekini Abodunrin, who spoke on
behalf of the shop owner, explained that they inherited the business
from their parents. Abodunrin made a strong case for local herbal
aphrodisiacs, saying, “People believe in their efficacy because their
work is immediate”.
Based on that, Abodunrin claimed that
alternative medicine practitioners have been contending with orthodox
doctors in the race to win patients requiring treatment for sexual
disorders such as low sperm count, watery sperm, low libido, weak
erection, premature ejaculation and impotence. He also claimed that some
of the disorders were the result of the consumption of excessive sugar
and inorganic foods.
Abodunrin noted that purchasing herbal
drugs from hawkers such as Ramota was unwise because such people might
not be traceable should there be side effects to the drugs.
“Natural herbalists in shops are
generally trained for it, so they give prescriptions depending on the
complaints and will advise customers to follow the prescription,” he
said.
Interestingly, the same quantity of ‘Ale’ herb that Ramota sells for N300 goes for N2000 at Sir Jimoh Herbal Centre.
A consultant urologist at the Lagos
University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Lagos, Dr. Habeeb Tijani, says
that “aphrodisiacs have existed among all races and survived for ages,
but the difference is the drugs.”
Tijani agreed that aphrodisiacs could
work for persons whose sexual disorders are psychological, “but it will
not work if it’s not psychological.”
He, however, warned against the
indiscriminate use of aphrodisiacs, warning that it is “difficult to say
which one is safe until it is analysed.”
He said, “A lot of them contain
established components like testosterone and dopamine, which can
increase blood pressure when you use inappropriate doses.”
He added that raising the level of
testosterone in the body with aphrodisiacs to boost sex drive could
affect fertility or even cause impotence on the long run. He said, “The
brain gets used to getting the testosterone, so when you stop using the
drug, the body fails to produce it.”
In his reaction, Consultant Family
Physician, Nigerian Air Force Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos, Dr. Gbolahan
Abideen, also said that there was a limit to the role that aphrodisiacs
can play in correcting sexual disorders.
For instance, Abideen said that
sufferers would find aphrodisiacs useless in correcting premature
ejaculation, which some studies have claimed to be affecting as many as
one in three men.
“Aphrodisiacs only work to sustain erection and not delay ejaculation in an individual with premature ejaculation.
“The other bit is the unpredictable
effect of the aphrodisiac on the heart and sometimes the kidney and
liver. Tablet equivalents have been researched into and the side-effect
or safety profile is well understood and this translates into the
dosing.
“Unlike the local aphrodisiac, in which
case, the dose is not scientifically determined, hence safety profile
undetermined. Deaths from cardiac arrest have been recorded with these
drugs,” he said.
Though Abodunrin argued that local
herbalists now have prescriptions which are measured in shots, local
herbs continue to receive knocks from orthodox medical practitioners.
A medical doctor at the Lagos State
University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos, Idris Durojaiye, described
such traditional herbs as “unsafe.”
He noted that, unlike orthodox drugs and
medicines, which are tested on different age brackets of people over
many years before being certified for general use, traditional herbs are
not put through such tests.
Although Durojaiye admitted that the
traditional herbs could sometimes be potent, he, however, warned against
their use, saying that they could lead to organ failure.
“The exact composition of the herbs is
not known; they contain so many chemicals and substances which force the
liver and the kidney to overwork in trying to break them down, and so
this leads to organ failure,” he said.
He also added that the degree of active
components in the herbs is not “documented,” so “it may work for 50 per
cent of its users and not work for others. But the problem is that when
the herbs fail, the users end up in the hospital, and we (orthodox
doctors) are the ones to mop up the mess.”
Alcohol is regarded as a favourite alternative to aphrodisiacs.
Non-aphrodisiac substances such as
alcohol, sometimes mixed with energy drinks, are also taken prior to
sexual intercourse, to increase libido and performance.
A commercial transport operator, Mr.
Tajudeen Ogunsanwo, admitted taking alcohol often before sex. Ogunsanwo
described the act as beneficial, saying being tipsy calms his nerves
during sex and prevents him from ejaculating early.
A consultant cardiologist at LUTH, Dr.
Goke Ale, however, labelled alcohol as “cardio toxic.” He described the
combination of alcohol and sex as ‘suicidal’.
“Alcohol without sex can kill someone
with heart failure because it is poisonous to the heart, so why put
additional pressure (on the heart)?” he asked.
Ale said that alcohol can actually cause
sexual disinhibition in the user, which explains Ogunsanwo’s indulgence
in it to suppress his nervousness.
“When you’re drunk, you’re freer. You
are less inhibited or you are disinhibited,” he said, warning of its
long term adverse effect on sexual performance.
“Alcohol alone can depress the function
of the heart or cause abnormal rhythm of the heart because it has
effects on the brain, heart, liver and blood vessels,” he added.
However, Abideen assured that seeking
proper management of sexual disorders is better than resolving to
alcohol, which could cause substance-induced erectile dysfunction. He
added that “excessive alcohol consumption, drugs and nicotine can have a
negative effect on how the penis functions.”
For instance, Abideen advised persons
suffering from premature ejaculation to open up to their partners so
that they could both see a doctor. He also advised partners to show
understanding to sufferers, adding that being “non-supportive partners
could impact negatively on a man’s ego and self-esteem, and consequently
lead to anxiety, depression and eventually infidelity.”
He, however, identified the use of
condoms, numbing creams and drugs as some of the ways by which premature
ejaculation is managed, adding that the management of the condition is
based on individual context.
The Acting Director, Special Duties,
NAFDAC, Mr. Abubakar Jimoh, expressed disappointment with the trend,
particularly with the influx of foreign aphrodisiacs with pornographic
pictures.
He said, “We are aware of it as it’s
prevalent now. There are some with outlandish and pornographic pictures
used to advertise them; once you see the picture, it tells the story.
Many of them in circulation are not registered in Nigeria and we are
working to get them out of circulation.”
Jimoh, however, added that the category
of alternative medicine generally hawked and sold out in cups, bottles
and polythenes falls outside the scope of the organisation.
“The ones that are just concoctions that
people mix together and distribute by the roadside cannot be
categorised as drugs, so they don’t fall within our jurisdiction,” he
said.
However, according to Jimoh, there is a
group of processed alternative medicine that can be categorised as
drugs, and so falls within NAFDAC’s jurisdiction. Some of them have
NAFDAC seal. For instance, Alomo and Osomo bitters have NAFDAC numbers
A1-8029 and A7-0267L, respectively.
Jimoh said, “The ones that are
registered like Alomo are okay, but the counterfeited ones are not okay;
even the makers have asked us to help out as their product has been
counterfeited. But most of the drugs that we have registered are listed,
in the sense that you can sell to the Nigerian public. NAFDAC has
checked that it will not kill. But this is not the same as certifying
the efficacy of the drugs; we have not been able to verify the efficacy
of the drugs yet.”
According to him, there is an ongoing
collaboration between the agency and the National Institute for
Pharmaceutical Research and Development, which “has the competence to
test the efficacy of those drugs.”
But in spite of warnings by medical
practitioners that alternative medicine could be dangerous to health,
some alternative medicine practitioners have dismissed such claims,
calling it is a product of a threatened orthodox medicine.
Mrs. Fausat Ogundipe, an alternative
medicine practitioner, said that such claims show that medical doctors
are getting envious of the recent success of alternative medicine in the
country.
She added that in her two decades of
selling alternative medicine, none of her customers had died following
their use of the drugs.
She said, “It’s not true what doctors
say that our products are harmful. If they are harmful or not potent,
then why do people continue to patronise us? Doctors are only jealous
because more of their customers are patronising us and coming back to
the roots.”
Another practitioner of alternative
medicine, Lonpe Adepegba, said that the feedback she gets from her
customers confirms its potency.
“What people tell me is that the drugs
work well and they still come back for more. What my drug does is to
cleanse the system and the sugar concentration in the body, so that the
person can have a better erection,” she said of her aphrodisiac.