Herbs of Love

Seeing as she was the Greek goddess of beauty and love, Cupid’s mom, Aphrodite, was impossible to resist, especially when she wore her girdle made of gold, with magic woven into its filigree. Down through the ages, gods and mortals alike have celebrated an odd assortment of foods, flora, fauna, talismans, and other novelties for their power to set off sexual fireworks. In today’s anything-goes world, all it takes is a doctor’s prescription to ignite someone’s fuse. But if ingesting chemicals isn’t your cup of tea, and girdles of gold are out of your price range, why not go the natural, back-to-earth route? Even though scientists in their lab coats have traditionally dissed plant-based aphrodisiacs as sexually worthless, old beliefs die hard, particularly when they promise—and deliver—great sex. But things are definitely looking up. From an Amazon shrub to the bark of a West African tree, new research shows that a surprising number of herbal aphrodisiacs really do stimulate more than just the imagination. Here then—in time for February 14—are natural aphrodisiacs that may make this Valentine’s Day, if not the rest of the year, seem more like the Fourth of July.