About Yohimbe - Pausinystalia yohimbe or Corynanthe yohimbe

Botannical facts

Yohimbe is the name of several African evergreen  trees. The most important is Pausinystalia yohimbe, but also others like Corynathe yohimbe are used.  Other plants that contain the same effective substances are Aspidosperma quebracho-blanco and Rauwolfia serpentina .

Pausinystalia yohimbe is an oak-like tree belonging to the family rubiaceae.  It grows mainly in Cameroon, Gabon, and Zaire.

The full botanical specification of this tree is:
Cladus: Eukaryota. Regnum: Plantae, Cladus: Angiospermae, Cladus:Eudicots, Cladus: core eudicots, Cladus: Asterids, Cladus: Euasterids

Ordo: Gentianales, Familia: Rubiaceae, Subfamilia: Cinchonoideae, Tribus: Naucleeae, Genus: Pausinystalia, Species: Pausinystalia johimbe

It can reach a height of 100 feet (ca 30 meters) with the branches fairly heigh up in the trunk. It has narrow oval leaves. The flowers appear in a bushy manner and they produce winged seeds.

It has light-brown or grayish-brown bark with vertical and horisontal fissures with a thickness of about one inch. the brak is often cowered by lichens.

Habitat and growth condition

The trees  grow in western Africa in Nigeria, Cameroon, the Congo and Gabon. It grows in rain forests.

Production and preparation

The bark of the tree is used gound and this ground powder is used in herbal products. The effective component yohimbine is also extracted from the bark and sold to pharmaceutical plants.

The bark of Pausinysthalia yohimbe has the highest persentage of the effective components. This bark contains 0,6 - 09, per sent yohimbine which is the compound considered effective.

The total amount of alkaloids in the bark is 6%.  Ectracts from the bark are sold with  different concentrations of yohimbine, for example 45, 8% and 20%.

Pausinysthalia yohimbe has become a rare tree due to bark harvesting that destroys the trees. Therefore barks of the other trees are mostly used for herbal products.

The extract are prepared ans sold as tinctures and are integrated in capsules. Th edried bark is also used, but must then be taken with some acid additives, like vitamin C. lemon juice or fruit acids to make yohimbine easily taken up.

Effective constituents and their basic reactions

The effective component in yohimbe is the alcaloid yohimbine. Yohimbine is a selective competitive alpha2-adrenergic receptor antagonist, that is it hinders the signalling of adrenaline to certain tissues.

This action decreases manifestations of stress, and thus tend to decrease the blood sugar level, decrease the heart rate, decrease allertness against external dangers, decrease panic and anxiety reactions, decrease blood flow to muscles and increase blood flow to internal organs.

On receptors for the neurotransmitter serotonione, it mostly has the same effect as the hormone itself. Thus it will increase blood presure and increase the muscular actions in some internal organs like the intestines.

On receptors that takes signals from dopamine, it will mostly hinder these signals. This effect tend to decrease heart rate and blood pressure.

Yohimbine stimulate the production of norepinephrine in nerve endings, for example in the genital region. Noradrenaline relaxes blood vessels in this area and helps the penis to fill with blood.

Thus yohimbine has several actions that to some extend go in opposite directions. Good effects on sexual functions may be due to an over-all increase in blood flow to internal organs, an over-all increase in blood pressure and an reduction of many components of stress.

The manifest symptomatic or medical effects of yohimbine are based on the more basic biochemical effects. The symptomatic effects are:

- Yohimbine alone can counteract erectile dysfunction in some men, but not all. The substance alone do not seem to increase sexual drive. It is however effective against orgasmic problems.

- The substance can counteract sexual exhaustion in male rats. It can increase the semen volume in dogs.

- Yohimbine seems to help recall burried memories, for example memories associated with post-traumatic stress disorder.

- Yohimbine seems to increase fat loss, especially when combined with athletic activities.

Yohimbe also contains these compunds that may have medical and sexual effects: Ajmaline, corynantheine, corynanthene, quebrachin, tannins.

Medical effects and uses of the herb yohimbe and yohimbine

Much of the effects reported for yohimbe, are caused by the effects of the constituent yohimbine, but possibly also from other constituents. The herb used as a whole or as extracts, have the following effects:

Yohimbe increases the strength of erection in men that does not have any erectil dysfunction. Thus it makes an allready normal erectile power even stronger.

Yohimbe is effective in some cases for helping against erectil dysfunction, but not in all.  Combined with other drugs, it has shown to have a greater  effect against erectile dysfunction.

Since yohimbe both decreases and increases many bodily and mental reactions, it probably will be effective against erectile dysfunction where the dysfunction is caused by an inappropriate level of several bodily processes and where yomimbe happens to regulate these processes toward a more optimal level.

Some users of yohimbe often report strong effect both on increasing also a normal erection potency to even higher levels.

Laboratory experiments show that the effects of yohimbe alone on erections only occur in some cases. This is in contrast to the fairly high number of individuals that report such an effect. Probably the effect is strong, but only in combination with other drugs or certain arousing factors, such as a sexually arousing environment. Probably some of the effect also is secondary to other physiological effects and shows up after some time and primarily in normal life that is not so easily studied in laboratory.

Yohimbe has shown to be effective against dysfunctions in the mechanism of orgasms.

Yohimbe is said also to increase genital reaction and especially engorgement of the sexual organ by women. It may also be effective against lack of sexual lust by women, but it is seldome reported to be used for this purpose.

Yohimbe has the ability to keep a person awake for a long time.

Yohimbe seems to help persons loose body fat when it is combined with regular training activities. It may therefore be useful for body-builders that have a reduction of body fat mass as one of the goals.

Yohimbe can increase the production of saliva.

Yohimbe may be helpful for treatment of anxiety disorders. However, since the basic actions of the constituents are very complex and to some extend go in opposite directions, it is probable that the usefullness against anxiety will depend highly upon the cause of the anxiety.

Yohimbe can help against hypertension in some cases. However a dose of 5 mg or more will increase the blood pressure due to some causes, for example by orthostatic hypertension due to failure in the autonomic nerve system or orthostatic hypertension due to wide-spread tissue athrophy. Because of the divesified action on the blood pressure, the drug is not any more used against hypertension.

Yohimbe can also help against angina pectoris, but the use for this purpose is also probably ceased.

Side effects and cautions

Yohimbe in moderate and greater amount increases distinctly the heart rate and effectively hinders sleep. High amounts can cause seizures and renal failur in some individuals.

Even small amounts can sometimes cause anxiety, nausea, dissiness and high blood pressure in susceptible persons. Some persons get hypersensitive to light when taking yohimbe.

Therefore only small amounts of yohimbe must be used. and the drug must not be used regularly every day for a longer period.

The amount of yohimbe in commercial capsules and tinctures are usually regulated to amounts that do not cause dangerous effects if used as prescribed.

Yohimbe in great enough doses can cause halusinations and it has sometimes been smoken for that purpose.

Traditional medical uses

In African cultures the herb has been used for centuries to increase sexual drive and boost erection power. It has also been used in Africa for fever, coughs and leprosy. Yahimbe tea has also traditionally been drunk by warriors in preparation for battle. The tea has been a sermonial drink during fertilization rituals and during ritruals preparing boys for manhood. It has also been used topically to alleviate local pain. It has also been used to smoke it for halusinogenic properties.

Uses in modern herbal drugs

The herb is used in modern herbal drugs to increase sexual drive, to maximize erections, to help against erectile dysfunction and to help against orgasmic problems. However, since side effects can be very distinct in greater doses, one uses only small amounts of yohimbe in these drugs to hinder side effects. The yohimbe is also combined with other effectors, so that the combined action of yohimbe and the other drugs gives the wanted result. This combined action is greater that the action of yohimbe alone.

Uses in pharmacological products

Yohimbe or yohimbine has been a prescription pharmacy for a long time to be used against erectile dysfunction, but it is less popular now after drugs like viagra an the like got onto the makret.

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These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is nutritional in nature and should not be construed as medical advice. This notice is required by the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.