Muira puama grows in Brazil's Amazon rain forest along the Rio Negro in Brazil where Traditional healers use all parts of the tree for food and medicine, but focus primarily on the bark and roots to make a tea taken to treat fatigue, muscular weakness, and sexual debility. The native peoples of the Amazon who use muira puama combine it with catuaba, allowing the mixture to stand in warm water overnight to make an amber medicinal infusion. ( The name catuaba is used for the infusions of the bark of a number of trees native to Brazil.) It has been widely used in Europe and South America for hundreds of years. In French clinical trials, it was reported that muira puama was effective in improving libido and treating erectile dysfunction. The herb has a longstanding and worldwide reputation as a treatment for impotence.

Folklore throughout South America strongly supports muira puama's stimulating properties. It is commonly referred to not only as an aphrodisiac but also as a nerve stimulant that is said to heighten the receptiveness to sexual stimuli. Muira puama is a preventive of baldness. (1)

Muira puama contains the numerous chemicals and volatile oils that restore the sex drive.(2) Muira puama seems to have two effects: increasing libido and increasing penile hardness. Muira puama is rich in naturally occurring sterols, which are possible building blocks for hormones such as testosterone. Also present are numerous other chemicals and volatile oils like camphor, which help restore the sex drive and inner depth of libido. The second effect, penile hardness may stem from its apparent effect on circulation.