TONIC

摘要

Muirapuama is the root of a bush of the family Olacaceae, which grows in the Amazon River basin, Brazil, and the original vegetation of which includes Ptychopetalum olacoides, P. uncinatum and Liriosma ovata. Its extract has been known from of old as a tonic and aphrodisiac, but it has problems of, for example, low drug efficacy. Now the present inventors have found that the extract containing at least 0.033 % of beta -sitosterol, prepared by condensing a solution obtained by macerating a chopped crude drug containing muirapuama with 50-99 % ethanol or another solution obtained by further macerating the residue of the above solution with 50-99 % ethanol, has more potent tonic and aphrodisiac effects than those of the conventional extracts and dried extracts. Further it has been found that drugs containing the extract are efficacious in preventing or treating impotency, subvirility, and the like caused by stress.