Kaempferia parviflora, a Thai Herbal Plant, neither Promote Reproductive Function nor Increase Libido via Male Hormone

Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok 10110, Thailand Address for Correspondence Hataitip Trisomboon, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok 10110, Thailand E-mail address: [email protected] ABSTRACT Kaempferia parviflora (KP) or Kra-Chai-Dum in Thai name is an herbal plant. Thai folk use this plant in quack medicine to alleviate male potency, induce an energizer, balance blood pressure, and reduce stomach pain. Especially, KP has famous as a Thai Viagra or ginseng and use it to increase sexual activity and improve male reproduction. In recent years, the previous studies have been demonstrated that KP treatment to the adult male rats did not increase male sexual behavior. Testosterone, gonadotropin (follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) or luteinizing hormone (LH)) concentrations in serum did not significantly change in either immature or adult male rats. Accordingly, it is clearly to show that KP did not disrupt the hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axis and reproduction in male. No disruption of testosterone concentration may be one possible reason why we did not observe the increasing mating behavior of the rats. Nevertheless, KP has been found to induce vasodilative action by increasing endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) located in the endothelium of penile vasculature and sinusoidal endothelium within corpora carvernosa of the rats. Hence, we assume that KP may affect the increasing mating behavior of the rats via the increasing blood flow to the testicular vessel.