AB005. Honey Goat Grass: myth or true

Abstract: A natural medicine Epimedi herba, which had been named Honey Goat Grass by Dr. Hong-Jing Tao in thousands of years ago and had been used for treating sexual dysfunction frequently by now, however, the efficacy and mechanism is unclear. Studies noted that Icariin is one of impotent molecular isolated from Epimedi herba, which could be hydrolyzed into icariside II in the digestive tract by glucosidase after oral administration. In vitro study found that icariside II showed the potency of specific inhibit PDE-5 activity like Sildenafil however, the potency of inhibiting PDE-5 showed significantly lower than that of sildenafil. More interestingly we found that icariside II have the potencies of restored pathological changes such as the repair of endothelium dysfunction, smooth muscle apoptosis and nerves lingerie in debit ED and neurogenic ED model rats to significantly improved erectile function. The mechanism of icariside II treating ED showed the relationship with regulation TGF-SMAD and mir-155/eNOS pathway et al. and related with activation of penile endogenous stem cell differentiation and activation. These results noted that icariside II is impotent molecular for treating ED by restore penile pathological changes to treating ED, which could be candidate molecular for developing treating ED medicine in future.

Keywords: Icariin; Epimedi herba; Honey Goat Grass; ED