Better sex, more muscle... this is what tongkat ali can do for you. Provided you buy it from a legitimate source that doesn't sell you a grossly under-dosed product.

While men in Southeast Asia have traditionally been using tongkat ali to increase their virility, women in Southeast Asia have always relied on kacip fatima to keep pace with their men.

Without doubt, in Southeast Asia love and sex are regarded as natural pleasure (for men and women) much more clearly, and more directly, than in Europe or North America. Here you still have matrilinear societies (such as the Minang on Sumatra), a kind of Islam (on Java) that encourages pre-marital love (though "officially" not pre-marital sex), societies where sexual relationships of older men and older women with much younger partners are socially accepted, and where sexual details until now are openly discussed in villages.

While both tongkat ali and kacip fatimah raise free testosterone, tongkat ali works better for men, and kacip fatima works better for women.

Men and women in Southeast Asia have long regarded it as an art and a science to improve their sexual function, or to bring it back to youthful levels when there has been an age-related decline.

Asians use many herbs for their sexual effects, and even herbs with rather distinct efficacies are traded openly. In Indonesia, for example, herbal mixtures such as "Galian Rapat" are sold at many cigarette booths. The name means "narrow cavity", or, more specifically, "narrow vagina", a condition considered conducive to sexual pleasure. A common ingredient is kacip fatimah.

Whether the female primary sexual organ is in an optimal condition after the consumption of kacip fatimah, and whether women experience heightened sexual pleasure by using the herbal (as they have done for hundreds of years) is a matter sufficiently important to the Malaysian government to finance interdisciplinary scientific research into kacip fatimah. And the Malaysian government has a stake in the medical, pro-sexual use of tongkat ali for men as well.

As a long-term user of tongkat ali, I have considerable trust in Southeast Asian herbal medications. Even though kacip fatimah is considered primarily a herb for women, and even though I am a man, I have tried it a few times and can attest to the herb's pro-libido effects. The effect of about half one leaf, boiled as a tea, is a mixture of sympathetic and parasympathetic stimuli, with the parasympathetic effects being dominant. Among the parasympathetic effects are nasal sinus stimulation resulting in a stuffed nose, as I also feel it from dopaminergic medications, and yes, increased blood flow to the groin. The primary sympathetic effect is a slightly increased heart rate.

Indonesian tongkat ali, as well as kacip fatimah, can be purchased from the world's only tongkat ali plantation, Sumatra Pasak Bumi (website: tongkatali.org). The company and plantation are named Sumatra Pasak Bumi, not Sumatra Tongkat Ali, because the Indonesian name of tongkat ali is pasak bumi. Actually, Sumatra Pasak Bumi (with website tongkatali.org) is the only company that sells kacip fatimah online.