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Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "
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02.11.2009 |
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Muscle building effect of Tongkat Ali shown in animal study
Extracts of the Asian bush Eurycoma longifolia, or Tongkat Ali, increase the testosterone level, according to an Italian animal study that we wrote about some time ago. According to an older animal study, which Malaysian researchers published 14 years ago, the effect on the testosterone level is sufficient to stimulate growth of muscle tissue.
Tongkat Ali contains substances such "quassinoids, squalene derivatives, biphenylneolignans, tirucallane-type triterpenes, canthine-6-one and carboline alkaloids", to quote the Malaysian study. This cocktail stimulates the testes to make more testosterone – and also has a muscle strengthening effect itself.
The researchers, working at the University Science Malaysia, discovered this while studying the effects of Tongkat Ali on rats for the Japanese multinational Toray.
It doesn't make much difference which extract you use, the researchers write. From this they conclude that the anabolic effect of Tongkat Ali is based on a series of compounds. If there were one specific substance that was responsible for muscle growth, then a few extracts would have had absolutely no effect.
The researchers repeated their trials with castrated rats, giving them 15 mg testosterone per kg bodyweight daily. The table below shows that the extracts also had an anabolic effect on these animals – at least, the sphincter muscle showed an increase in weight.
Although the researchers do not mention it, this suggests that at least some of the substances in Tongkat Ali may interact directly with the androgen receptor.
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