Maca is a new food raw material rich in alkaloids, glucosinolates, polyphenols and other active ingredients. These functional ingredients of Maca root extract have physiological functions such as anti-fatigue and anti-oxidation. This article explains in detail how the various natural ingredients work.
Maca Ingredients
1. Alkaloids
It is generally accepted that alkaloids are one of the most important active components of maca. Maca alkaloids are mainly composed of 22 alkaloids including macamide, macaene, imidazole alkaloids, hydroxypyridine derivatives and β-carboline alkaloids.
Among them, macamide and macaene are considered to be the unique active ingredients of maca. In addition to the conventional anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antibacterial, and anticancer functions of alkaloids, macamide also has biological activities to protect nerve cells and regulate the nervous system. It is most likely the main active substance in maca for improving fertility.
Maca alkaloids are low in content. The contents of macaamide and macaene in maca fresh fruit from Yunnan and Sichuan provinces of China were 49.72mg/100g-204.36mg/100g and 10.22mg/100g-66.73mg/100g, respectively. Because its purification process is complicated, its application in food and medicine is limited.
2. Glucosinolates
Glucosinolate is a sulfur- and nitrogen-containing hydrophilic anionic secondary metabolite widely present in cruciferous plants. Glucosinolates and their decomposition products have a variety of biological activities. Maca improves fertility and enhances sexual function, which are directly related to glucosinolates and their decomposition products.
3. Flavonoids and Polyphenols
Flavonoids and polyphenols are two kinds of natural active products widely found in plants. Maca contains a certain amount of flavonoids and polyphenolic compounds.
Maca Function
1. Anti-fatigue
The efficacy of maca in improving exercise endurance and anti-fatigue has been clearly verified. Various functional ingredients in maca have anti-fatigue effects, such as maca amide, maca protein and branched-chain amino acids.
2. Antioxidant
Maca has good in vitro and in vivo antioxidant activity. However, the protein antioxidant activity of Chinese maca is not as good as that of Peruvian maca. The external application of maca extract on rat skin showed the effect of preventing UV damage to the skin. This shows that maca has the ability to inhibit photoaging.
3. Improves fertility
Maca has been shown to enhance fertility in both humans and animals. The efficacy substance may be phytosterols or phytoestrogens. This mechanism may be related to increasing the number of mature follicle bodies in animals and enhancing sperm count and mobility.
Normal men (22-44 years old) took maca tablets (1500 or 3000 mg/d) orally for 4 months, and the semen volume, sperm count, total number of motile sperm, and sperm motility all improved. Results of randomized clinical trials have also demonstrated the efficacy of maca in the treatment of mild erectile dysfunction.