Table 1. Potential mechanism of Chinese herb or herbal extract in treating ED.
| Chinese herb or herbal extract | Potential mechanism |
|---|---|
| Angelica sinensis (11) | Enhancing NOS activity |
| Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort (12) | Increasing cAMP and cGMP content |
| Folium Ginkgo Bilobae (13-15) | Increasing nNOS expression; increasing dopaminergic activity |
| Common Cnidium Fruit (16,17) | Increasing NO release; inhibiting phosphodiesterase |
| Tribulus terrestris (18-20) | Increasing testosterone level |
| Morinda officinalis How (21,22) | Increasing testosterone level |
| Herba Cistanche (23-25) | Increasing testosterone level |
| Semen cuscutae (26) | Increasing testosterone level |
| Ginseng (27,28) | Reducing oxidative stress |
| Lycium barbarum L (29,30) | Reducing oxidative stress |
| Tetrandrine (31) | Reducing intracellular Ca2+ concentration in corpus cavernosum |
| Neferine (32,33) | Reducing intracellular Ca2+ concentration in corpus cavernosum; increasing cAMP content |
| Kaempferia parviflora (34,35) | Reducing intracellular Ca2+ concentration in corpus cavernosum; inhibiting PDE5 |
| Panax Notoginseng (36,37) | Reducing oxidative stress; increasing eNOS expression |
| Berberin (38,39) | Increasing eNOS expression; reducing oxidative stress |
| Icariin (40-42) | Inhibiting PDE5; increasing NOS expression; down-regulating TGFβ1/Smad2 pathway; increasing testosterone level |
ED, erectile dysfunction; NOS, nitric oxide synthase; eNOS, endothelial nitric oxide synthase; nNOS, neural nitric oxide synthase; cAMP, cyclic adenosine monophosphate; cGMP, cyclic guanosine monophosphate; NO, nitric oxide; PDE5, phosphodiesterase type 5; TGFβ1, transforming growth factor β1.