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Muira Puama

The 'potency wood' of the Amazon has decent rodent memory and antidepressant data and a clean 28-day tolerability record as part of a combination product, but not a single controlled human trial of muira puama alone for libido, erections, or cognition.

What the science says

  • Enhances libido and erectile function Limited evidence

    The reputation traces to uncontrolled French open-label case series from the 1990s reporting improvement in a majority of men — no placebo, no randomization, no blinding, and never replicated in a controlled trial. Reviews of herbal sexual enhancers consistently classify muira puama as traditionally used but clinically unvalidated, and flag the category's adverse-event and adulteration problems.

  • Improves memory and acts as a 'brain tonic' Limited evidence

    Ptychopetalum olacoides ethanol extract reverses scopolamine- and MK-801-induced amnesia in mice and improves retention in both aversive and non-aversive learning paradigms at 100-800 mg/kg, with acetylcholinesterase inhibition proposed as the mechanism. These are among the more carefully done rodent nootropic studies for an Amazonian plant, but no human cognitive trial exists at any dose.

  • Tolerability in humans Limited evidence

    The only controlled human safety data come from Catuama, a fixed combination of guarana, catuaba, muira puama, and ginger: 25 mL twice daily for 28 days in healthy volunteers produced no severe adverse reactions and no hematological or biochemical abnormalities. That supports short-term tolerability of the combination, not efficacy of muira puama, and says nothing about the 1-1.5 g standalone doses on most labels.

Dosage & safety

Studied doseNo efficacy-validated dose exists. Commercial capsules typically supply 500-1500 mg of powdered root or bark, or 250 mg of a 4:1 extract, one to two times daily. The rodent work used ethanol extracts, and the traditional preparation is an alcoholic maceration, so the resinous active constituents are poorly captured by water infusion or plain powder.
SafetyNo serious adverse events have been reported in the limited human exposure data, but that exposure amounts to one 28-day combination-product study. Muira puama is almost always sold blended with stimulants — guarana, yohimbine, or caffeine — and most reported side effects (insomnia, palpitations, agitation, anxiety) belong to those partners rather than the root itself; check the full formula, and take yohimbine-containing blends seriously given its blood pressure and anxiety effects. Herbal sexual enhancers are among the most frequently adulterated supplement categories, with undeclared PDE5 inhibitors found in commercial products — a genuine hazard for anyone on nitrates. No data in pregnancy, breastfeeding, liver disease, or long-term use.

Scientific references

Where to buy

Nutricost, Muira Puama, 120 Capsules (150 mg per Capsule)

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