Natural Vs artificial aphrodisiacs

BY ADITHA Dissanayake

DO you remember the television advertisement which shows so vividly, how easy it is to hold the partner of your dreams in your arms, stretched out on a snooker table, listening to the strains of Purple Rain, if you had dabbed yourself with perfume before leaving home?

Perfumes, the belief in the seductive powers of which, is as old as Cleopatra, are said to be best applied, (according to the Greek poet Appolonius), on the body's 'hot spots' (the breasts, neck, earlobes and wrist pulse).

In one of the most erotic love poems in the world, the Song of Solomon, the lovers spend the night sampling each other's honey breath and lips perfumed with myrrh. ("Thy lips..., drop as the honeycomb, and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon"). Today, however, the herbs, spices and flowers used for their sweet smells by the Ancients have been replaced by aftershave lotions and deodorants.

In other words, by artificial aphrodisiacs, which come in glass containers of different sizes, shapes and prices. Some in stylish slim bottles with silver bands and marble tops. Others in elegant flasks but with narrow necks and gold coloured bands running round the stopper.

So exotic, so elegant that sometimes it is the bottle that seems to matter more than the perfume. And they all have appropriate names that evoke passion. i.e "eternity", "nude" "blue water" , "opium" "escape" and "poison" to name only a few.

But what are these perfumes made of? Apparently, formulas used for making perfumes are considered trade secrets and manufacturers are under no obligation to release them.

However, as any graduate in chemistry will tell you perfumes contain harmful chemicals like ethanol, acetone, formaldehyde and benzene which could cause dizziness, vertigo and skin diseases as well as cancer and infertility.

According to a recent program on Discovery Channel, animals like mountain goats choose their mates by smelling one another. When a pig is in the mood to mate he breaths heavily in the direction of the sow he favors. If she likes his breath she succumbs.

It's no secret that humans have a very poorly developed sense of smell compared with other animals. Yet, even though our upright position prevents us from adopting the methods adopted by our wild counterparts (we can't, for example, go down on our hands and knees to smell each other), don't we also have natural body odours which stimulate desire?

Sure we do. Scientists believe the air around us is filled with chemicals called pheromones, made from the Greek words, pherin which means to carry, and horman meaning to excite.

The pleasant musky smell of masculine sweat is said to attract women, especially during the middle of their menstrual cycles, when they are at their most fertile.

Men, in turn are unconsciously attracted to the isovaleric acid secreted by women which is most powerful during ovulation. These secretions are not consciously noted, yet, act as powerful attractants.

Undoubtedly then, there is nothing as fragrant and healthy as bodily odours, but in minute concentrations. For, according to anthropologist Louis Leakey, too much odour might become an anti-attractant as it did for our ancestors who owed their survival to the offensive smell of their flesh, which predators found repulsive.

But, there is no arguing that there are no superior aphrodisiacs when it comes to courting, than those secreted by your own body, in which case its best that you use all the old perfume bottles to collect your own sweat.

You could be prepared then, if your partner too sends you a message the way Napoleon did, who, whenever he had time to leave the battlefield wrote to Josephine, saying "Ne te laves pas, je reviens." (Don't wash, I'm coming home").