THERE are many herbs with excellent food and medicinal values, but how about finding a herb to, as it were, spice up your sex life?Want to rev up your sex life without resorting to Viagra or Cialis? Then, according to folklore, there are quite a few herbs which are powerful natural aphrodisiacs. These herbs, reputedly, can help to raise libido and increase sexual desire in both males and females.

Greek Mythology
The word aphrodisiac is derived from Aphrodite, the mythical Greek Goddess of Love, Beauty, Pleasure and Sexual Rapture, whose Roman equivalent is the goddess, Venus.
According to the Greek historian, Hesiod, Aphrodite was born when Uranus (the father of the gods) was castrated by his son, Cronus, who threw the severed genitals into the ocean, which began to churn and foam about them.
From the “sea foam” arose Aphrodite. Homer calls her a daughter of Zeus and Dione.
Aphrodite emerged from the waters, carrying some herbs with her. The plants she brought were those which have powers to excite sexual desire, and have since been called aphrodisiacs.
After her birth, Zeus was afraid that the gods would fight over Aphrodite’s hand in marriage, so he married her off to the smith god, Hephaestus, the steadiest of the gods.
Hephaestus could hardly believe his good luck, and used all his skills to make the most lavish jewels for her. He made her a girdle of finely wrought gold, and wove magic into the filigree work.

Irresistible Aphrodite
That was not very wise of him, for when she wore her magic girdle, no one could resist her, and she was all too irresistible already. She loved gaiety and glamour, and was not at all pleased at being the wife of sooty, hard-working Hephaestus.
Aphrodite, it is said, had many lovers, gods such as Ares, and men such as Anchises. She played a role in the Eros and Psyche legend, and later was both Adonis’s lover and his surrogate mother.
Many lesser beings were said to be children of Aphrodite. Greek mythology apart, aphrodisiac plants have been used for ages to improve potency, help infertility and sterility, spice up one’s sex life, or enable seduction.

Powerful herbs
Some of these herbs were so powerful, that Monks in certain religious orders were prohibited from using them.
However, besides plants, there are elements from mineral and animal kingdoms with highly arousing effect on men and women.
Here in Guyana, our natural aphrodisiacs, “local viagras”, are being used regularly by many believing men and women, to give their sex lives a boost. They report heightened libidos, and some of these same aphrodisiacs are said to be able to prevent the development of prostate cancer in men.
The most potent are said to be as follows: Kapadulla, Granny Backbone, Sasparilla, Cockshun and Monkey Ladder.
Most of these plants grow on the hilly sand and clay region of Guyana, and can be found on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway. The ground-seeds of plants of the Cucurbitaceae family are said to have a similar invigorating effect.
Like most medicinal herbs or alternative medicines, safe dosages are a matter of ongoing debate.
More on these herbs and their reported aphrodisiac qualities next week.

(By Clifford Stanley)