New Polyphenol, Saffron Ingredient Targets Erectile Dysfunction

Photo © iStockphoto.com/Cathy Yeulet

A new sex-health ingredient from Nexira (Rouen, France) is “a natural and safe solution for erectile dysfunction (ED)," the company says. Launched at SupplySide West, EnoStim is a proprietary blend of apple and grape polyphenols and saffron.

EnoStim works by enhancing vasodilation by up to 50%, the company claims. Specifically, it helps to support the nitric oxide (NO) pathway responsible for penile erection. “The NO pathway is the most targeted lever to prevent vascular causes of ED, which concerns 52% of men between 40 and 70 years of age,” the company says in its press materials.

Nexira has reason to believe that the polyphenols in EnoStim aid vasodilation because those same ingredients are the basis of the company’s ViNitrox sports-nutrition ingredient launched a few years ago. Nexira points to in vitro¹ and ex vivo² company studies indicating that ViNitrox significantly boosted NO production, induced endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) activation, and increased vasodilation by 50%. In sports, this means that athletes can work out longer, with a more recent human clinical study showing that ViNitrox increased physical training time by 10% and delayed fatigue by 13%. The company further suggests that the antioxidants in ViNitrox help reduce oxidative stress that can otherwise shorten the lifespan of nitrix oxide in the body.

Mathieu Dondain, Nexira’s director of marketing and communications, says the company believes that these NO properties will carry over with EnoStim for ED. The addition of saffron (Crocus sativus), he says, should also play a synergistic role, pointing to two published studies^3,4 either linking saffron with benefits for ED or for increasing eNOS activity. In addition, Dondain says, the company has just wrapped up a new in vivo pilot study on EnoStim. The suggested EnoStim dosage is 300-600 mg/day for at least four weeks.

Dondain says the company’s growing expertise in the NO field gives it good reason to believe this ingredient will benefit ED. “We have been working a lot around nitric oxide production with apple and graph polyphenols with ViNitrox and [believed] that we could adjust somehow the formulation and bring the synergistic effect with saffron. So we decided to adjust that for that market, especially considering that we are not seeing many natural products in that field or ones that are natural and that have scientific data around them. So we are bringing a solution that is interesting with proven effects, dedicated data, and natural attractiveness.”

Also read:

SupplySide West: Maca Ingredient for Natural Libido, Sex Health

Sex Health Supplements: Managing Expectations

Ingredients for Sexual Health

Jennifer Grebow
Editor-in-Chief
Nutritional Outlook magazine
jennifer.grebow@ubm.com

References:

1. “Effect of NPF on the activation of eNOs through the phosphorylation of 'Serine 1177' from endothelial cells (HUVECs) as measured by flow cytometry,” 2008
2. “NPF stimulate endothelial-dependent vasodilation by nitric oxide synthesis. Ex vivo study on rat aorta,” 2004
3. Shamsa A et al. "Evaluation of Crocus sativus L. (saffron) on male erectile dysfunction: a pilot study,” Phytomedicine, vol. 16, no. 8 (August 2009): 690-693
4. Cai T et al. "An improvement in sexual function is related to better quality of life, regardless of urinary function improvement: results from the IDIProst® Gold Study," Archivio Italiano di Urologia, vol. 85, no. 4 (December 2013): 184-189