Butea superba is an herb native to Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, thought by locals to be an aphrodisiac

Aphrodisiac

An aphrodisiac is a substance that increases sexual desire. The name comes from Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of sexuality and love. Throughout history, many foods, drinks, and behaviors have had a reputation for making sex more attainable and/or pleasurable...

. It is abundantly distributed in the Thai deciduous forest and has been popular among Thai males for its supposed effects on rejuvenation and sexual vigor. No placebo-controlled clinical studies exist so far to support aphrodisiac activity. In toxicity experiments with rats, the application of high doses of dried plant material (equivalent to the consumption of 12 to 16 gram daily by an adult man)had a negative impact on several blood parameters and decreased testosterone

Testosterone

Testosterone is a steroid hormone from the androgen group and is found in mammals, reptiles, birds, and other vertebrates. In mammals, testosterone is primarily secreted in the testes of males and the ovaries of females, although small amounts are also secreted by the adrenal glands...

 but not LH levels. These adverse effects were dose-dependent and not reported with lesser applied quantities.

The tuberous roots of Butea superba were found to contain flavonoid

Flavonoid

Flavonoids , are a class of plant secondary metabolites....

s and flavonoid glycoside

Glycoside

In chemistry, a glycoside is a molecule in which a sugar is bound to a non-carbohydrate moiety, usually a small organic molecule. Glycosides play numerous important roles in living organisms. Many plants store chemicals in the form of inactive glycosides. These can be activated by enzyme...

s as well as sterol

Sterol

Sterols, also known as steroid alcohols, are a subgroup of the steroids and an important class of organic molecules. They occur naturally in plants, animals, and fungi, with the most familiar type of animal sterol being cholesterol...

 compounds, including β-sitosterol

Beta-sitosterol

β-Sitosterol is one of several phytosterols with chemical structures similar to that of cholesterol. Sitosterols are white, waxy powders with a characteristic odor...

, campesterol

Campesterol

Campesterol is a phytosterol whose chemical structure similar to that of cholesterol. Many vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds contain campesterol, but in low concentrations. Banana, pomegranate, pepper, coffee, grapefruit, cucumber, onion, oat, potato and lemon grass are few examples of common...

 and stigmasterol

Stigmasterol

Stigmasterol is one of a group of plant sterols, or phytosterols, that include beta-sitosterol, campesterol, ergosterol , brassicasterol, delta-7-stigmasterol and delta-7-avenasterol, that are chemically similar to animal cholesterol...

.