How do aphrodisiacs work?
In: Biology
In short, they don’t. Most of the things people have historically called aphrodisiacs are things that kinda, sorta look like genitalia, so they thought they might stimulate the genitalia, or at least make people start thinking about genitalia and get turned on.
One famous “aphrodisiac”, Spanish fly, is crushed up powder made from a dried beetle that contains a chemical that people used to think caused arousal. We now know that that chemical is actually a highly toxic blistering agent that irritates the urinary tract, which is not very sexy. Too much of it can cause internal bleeding, kidney failure, and death, which are also not very sexy.
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