The liquid base for the Nutrazon elixir is Inca Gold, a patent-pending extract derived from a radish-like vegetable, known as “Maca,” grown only on the inner slopes (“the Púna”) of the Andean mountains in Péru.

It has a rich history and tradition of use with ancient cultivars (areas of cultivation) discovered throughout South and Central America dating back over 5,800 years. During the time of the Inca (“The People of the Sun”), it was used in religious ceremonies, fed to warriors prior to battle to give them energy and vigor. Otherwise, it was reserved for use by the royalty and patricians.

In the 16th century, Pizarro and his conquistadores invaded South America in search of gold for their financier, the Spanish Queen Isabella. What they found was a very ancient and rich civilization – the Inca. What they brought was western disease that ultimately decimated the population. What they took was this golden tuber Maca – perhaps the “true gold” of the Incas. Its importance to the Spanish is recorded in the 16th century chronicles of Fra Corba who noted that traded as money, nine metric tonnes of Maca was exported to Spain for the Queen’s horses - a century before the potato was imported into Europe.

With the demise of the Inca and subsequent Spanish rule, cultivation of Maca waned. Today it is grown in the Púna at altitudes of 14,000 feet (4,200 meters or about 3 miles) – the highest cultivated crop in the world. To get an idea of altitude, as comparison, the federal aviation administration (FAA) requires that planes flying above an altitude of 10,000 feet be pressurized.

The only native (true) crucifer (broccoli family) of the Americas, baked as a potato, made into porridge and also fed to their domesticated animals, Maca is what allows these people to survive – to adapt – to their harsh environment.

SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE
Most people do not realize that there are physical effects on the body attributed to living at high altitude. Besides the obvious - a lack of oxygen and thus breathing difficulties, decreased energy and compromised mobility - in females there is a decrease in the rate of conception and increase in the rate of miscarriages. In males, there is a decrease in erection rigidity, sperm number, sperm motility and seminal fluid volume. In newborns, there is even affects on birth weight. For example, on average, babies born in New Orleans (which is below sea level) have a higher birth weight that those born in Denver (an altitude of 5,200 feet or 1 mile).

I would like to say that we “rediscovered” Maca but in fact we did not and our research, as most research, is built on the shoulders of others. In the late 1990’s, we began to train graduate students from Peruvian universities at our labs in the United States and in turn, Mark and his team made treks to Peru to teach courses there. Through these interactions, we were exposed to a plethora of unpublished data regarding Maca’s effects on both humans and animals.

About this same time, the research community began analyzing the traditional uses of Maca and the initial work focused on its nutritional value¹. However, with the mass appeal of the then new prescription medication Viagra®, research came to center on Maca’s indications for increasing sexual parameters.

In one of the first published animal studies, Maca had a measurable increase in energy, in the number of copulatory episodes and there was a decrease in the latent period of erection. (LPE) – the time to reach full erection from the start of stimulation – in animals with erectile disfunction². This was followed by additional animal studies clearly showing Maca significantly improved sexual performance, decreasing intromission (insertion) latency and increasing intromission frequency and copulatory efficacy^3-4. Maca supplementation activated spermatogenesis, increasing sperm count (by as much as 1½ times) and testicular weight, and significantly increased both testosterone and progesterone levels^5-8.

Concomitant with this animal work, research sought to identify the chemical constituents in Maca which were responsible for its physiological activity. A family of chemicals known as alkaloids were isolated and studied, such as lepidiline A and B⁹, as well as benzylisothiocyanate¹⁰, prevalent in broccoli family vegetables. New chemical structures, such as macamenes and macamides, were discovered and when isolated, found to somewhat promote sexual performance^11-13. Many of these chemicals and even the uses of Maca for increasing testosterone levels and libido were patented^14-18.

To see if the animal data was applicable, human clinical trials were conducted. Maca increased seminal fluid volume, sperm count and motility¹⁹; improved sperm morphology and concentration²⁰; increased energy and libido²¹; improved sexual desire²²; and, acted as a fertility enhancer and aphrodisiac²³. Erectile dysfunction affects approximately 50 percent of men ages 40 – 70 and Maca supplementation improved erectile dysfunction²⁴.

While the animal and human data seems to be similar, there are some important differences – the main one being hormonal levels. While it was reported that Maca increased both progesterone and testosterone in animals⁸ and may influence hormonal balance in humans²³, the overwhelming evidence suggest that in humans it has no effect^19,22,25. Additionally, as in both the animal and human studies and even using isolated and concentrated extracts, the dosage required was high: between 28 and 288 (500 milligram capsules) a day² for a 175 pound male! Often, the amount required were more than the amounts used in the original unpublished reports from Peru – which used the whole plant instead of extracts.

Additionally, our initial analysis of 8 samples of Maca currently on the market as either a bulk ingredient or finished product revealed that none were pure: 20% to 80% (about 1 out of 5 to 4 out of 5 parts) consisted of inert fillers. As no one has identified a single physiologically-active ingredient, we created Inca Gold, imported directly from the Púna and standardize (quality assured) to DIMUH: a relationship between chemical profile, purity and anti-oxidant activity.

In general, things get a lot more interesting in science when you start asking how something works rather that what it actually does – so the real question is how does Maca work? How does it affect sexual parameters in both males and females, affect the birth weight and growth of babies and act as an Adaptogen – without changing hormonal levels? That is where we come in and make our contribution – and the answer lies in fish.

At one point when in Pediatrics, we were studying hypoxia-induced fetal growth restriction (FGR) - in other words, low birth weight due to a lack of sufficient oxygen in the womb. Obviously, there are similarities between low birth weight at high altitudes (where there is less oxygen) and hypoxia-induced FGR – and we know that animals fed Maca in the Andes had an increase in birth weight. I know that this is a far jump that requires a lot of lateral thinking but alevins – the stage of a fish’s life where it is transitioning from yolk-feeding to external nutrition – undergo stresses similar to those found at high altitudes.

We therefore tested the effects of Inca Gold on farm-raised fish by incorporating it into their diet (aka feed) at different concentrations and comparing it to fish fed a normal diet. Farm-raised fish are an excellent model because of their defined lifespan (they are harvested after 100 days) and large numbers. Fish farmers routinely base their production on (1) the total number of fish, the number of off-spring, the total harvest size (by weight: which incorporates both the size of the fish and the number of fish).

Fish fed a 6% Inca Gold diet had an 800% increase in biomass: in other words, they lived longer (more survived the 100 day period), grew faster and had more offspring - and more offspring who survived.

We immediately developed a method to extract and concentrate Inca Gold into a dosage form applicable to humans and tested this material in human cells. Inca Gold regulates a chemical produced primarily by the liver (known as a polypeptide) which affects almost every cell in the body - especially in muscle, cartilage, bone, liver, kidney, nerves, skin, lungs – and regulates cell growth and development, especially in nerve cells, as well as cellular DNA synthesis. As this polypeptide naturally decreases with age, we applied for a grant from the Institute of Aging of the US National Institutes of Health, as well as a patent.

We also used Inca Gold as one of the main components in a stimulant (ephedra), diuretic (promotes water loss) and cathartic (promotes bowel movements) free human clinical trial in which 91% of the participants (about 87 men and women ages 17 to 70) lost weight over a 30 day period without diet or exercise. Additionally, of the participants that had high cholesterol, 70% experienced on average a 26 point decrease over the study period²⁶.

Nutrazon contains Inca Gold, a patent-pending extract, in a physiologically active concentration.

Work Cited:

Inca Gold®
1. Arch Latinoam Nutr, 50:126-33, 2000. Mice: Nutritional Value
2. Urology, 55:598-602, 2000. Mice/Rats: Enhanced the sexual function by an increase in the number of complete intromissions and the number of sperm-positive females in normal mice, and a decrease in the LPE in male rats with erectile dysfunction. Increases Energy. Aphrodisiac activity.
3. J Ethnopharmacol, 75:225-9, 2001. Male rats: Significantly improves sexual performance.
4. Andrologia, 34:177-9, 2002. Male Rat: Decreased intromission latency, intercopulatory interval; increased intromission frequency and copulatory efficacy.
5. Asian J Androl, 5:349-52, 2003. Male Rats: Activates onset and progression of spermatogenesis.
6. Asian J Androl, 3:231-3, 2001. Male rats: Increases sperm count and testicular weight.
7. Endocrinol, 180:87-95, 2004. Male Rat: Increased epididymal sperm count in a dose-dependent manner. At the highest dose, sperm count increased 1.58 times.
8. J Vet Med Sci, 65:1145-6, 2003. Mouse: Progesterone & Testosterone levels increased significantly.
9. J Nat Prod, 66:1101-3, 2003. Isolated 2 new imidazole alkaloids (lepidiline A and lepidiline B).
10. J Agric Food Chem, 50:5621-5, 2002. Maca constituents including benzylisothiocyanate.
11. Phytochemistry, 61:149-55, 2002. Isolated Constituent effective against termites.
12. Chem Pharm Bull (Tokyo), 50:988-91, 2002. Maca constituents and profile.
13. Phytochemistry, 59:105-10, 2002. Maca chemical constituents.
14. USPTO No. 6,093,421: Maca and antler for augmenting testosterone levels. 2000.
15. USPTO No. 6,267,995: Extract of Lepidium meyenii roots for pharmaceutical applications. 2001.
16. USPTO No. 6,428,824: Treatment of sexual dysfunction with an extract of Lepidium meyenii roots. 2002.
17. USPTO No. 6,444,237: Herbal composition for enhancing sexual response. 2002.
18. USPTO No. 6,552,206: Compositions and methods for their preparation from lepidium. 2003.
19. Asian J Androl, 3:301-3, 2001. Human Male: Increases seminal volume, sperm count per ejaculum, motile sperm count, and sperm motility without affecting serum hormone levels.
20. Reprod Biomed, 7:385-91, 2003. Human Male: Improves sperm morphology and concentration.
21. Altern Ther Health Med, 8:96-8, 2002. Increases energy and libido.
22. Andrologia, 34:367-72, 2002. Human Male: Improved sexual desire at 8 and 12 weeks of treatment w/o increasing serum testosterone and oestradiol levels.
23. Biomed Pap Med Fac Univ Palacky Olomouc Czech Repub, 147:119-30, 2003. Maca acts as a fertility enhancer, aphrodisiac, adaptogen, immunostimulant, anabolic and to influence hormonal balance.
24. Altern Med Rev, 9:4-16, 2004. Erectile dysfunction affects 50 percent of men ages 40-70 in the United States and is considered an important public health problem by the National Institutes of Health. There is evidence that Maca may be helpful for erectile dysfunction via improvements in penile endothelial L-arginine-nitric oxide activity.
25. J Endocrinol, 176:163-8, 2003. Human Male: Maca does not affect serum reproductive hormone levels.
26. J Amer Nutra Assoc, 5:34-40, 2001. Efficacy and Tolerance of an Ephedra-Free Nutraceutical Weight Management Product in an Asian Population.