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By Serge Kreutz
(2009)
I have been working in Southeast Asia as a foreign correspondent for German newspapers and radio stations, and I have written a number of conventional travel guides. But in as much as I have grown financially independent, I have attended to projects that were personally important to me.
Gathering scientific and empirical data on tongkat ali, for example. Thus, I have initiated two sort-of open-label clinical trials on tongkat ali extract (supplied by the Indonesian tongkat ali plantation Sumatra Pasak Bumi, with website tongkatali.org).
We have run a first tongkat ali trial in 2003, and I have helped Sumatra Pasak Bumi to set up a second trial in 2004.
Our 2003 trial was geared towards collecting empirical data on tongkat ali usage. Trial participants received 2 free 15-gram samples of 1:50 tongkat ali extract and were encouraged to keep a diary on their sexual activity (several reports have been integrated on this website).
The tongkat ali extract was provided as a powder, very similar to an instant coffee powder (but beating coffee in the degree of bitterness). I did not make specific dosage recommendations, but rather recommend that participants started with a very low initial dosage, and if this didn't have the desired effect, to work themselves up to higher dosages.
I myself started with a dosage of 1 gram of extract some 2 to 3 hours before sexual activities.
Many trial participants reported an improvement of some sexual parameters. The strongest pro-sexual effect was reported by older trial participants, and those who had sexual problems to start with.
During our 2003 trial, some participants had before-and-after laboratory tests done on testosterone and free testosterone, and in each case, a substantial increase was seen for free testosterone.
This result fitted nicely with the common theory that tongkat ali works by increasing the net synthesis of testosterone, as well as by binding to SHBG, thus increasing the plasma percentage of free testosterone (which was previously bound to SHBG).
In Sumatra Pasak Bumi's 2004 trial, the aim was to collect laboratory data on how well tongkat ali raises levels of testosterone and free testosterone.
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Copyright Serge Kreutz