The Special Ingredients of Maca

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The benefits of maca on health are due to the combination of its ingredients, even though not all have been completely investigated. Here, we offer a summary of the most known ingredients of maca and their properties for health:

• Macamide: FAAH inhibitors. It produces similar results to anti-inflammatory and anxyolitic medicines, and it improves the regeneration and increases the endurance when we undergo physical or mental stress for a long period of time.

• Alkaloids: Macaridine, macaene, lepidiline A and B. It regulates the hormone modulation of the hypothalamus.

• Mustard oil glycosides: glucotropaeolin with anti-cancer activity. Recommended to prevent breast and prostate cancer. The glycosides from mustard oil have anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal properties for the human body.

• Beta-carboline: the maca has little amounts of triptone, that acts as an anti-depressant by inhibiting the re-absorption of serotonine and norepinephrine. The tryptolin has an antioxidant effect.

• Beta-sitosterol: it reduces the cholesterol levels in the blood, produces a reduction of prostate swelling, and inhibits baldness in men.

• Selenium: the maca has enormous amounts of selenium (around a 700% of the daily amount that the body needs per a standard serving of 10 g of organic powder). Selenium is a basic antioxidant and it is essential for the functioning of all the endocrine glands.

 

All this active ingredients are found in each variety of the maca in different concentrations. The way the plant has been processed play an essential role in the benefits that we can obtain for our health. Its purity and quality are also important. The higher the altitude of its cultivation area (exclusive to the Andean maca) the higher the proportion of mustard oil glycosides will be, and the benefits will be also enhanced.

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Main Properties of Maca

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• The maca has a great variety of vitamins and minerals: iron, calcium, magnesium and zinc.

• Essential amino acids: all of them except for tryptophan.

• Maca is rich in omega 3 fatty acids, 6 and 9, linolenic, palmitic and oleic acid.

• It contains substances like phytosterols, alkaloids (macaine 1, 2, 3, and 4), flavonoids, saponins, isocyanates, glucosinolates, macacides, alkamides, and more.

• The maca helps to restore the physical balance and to compensate for possible deficiencies of the organism.

• The ingredients from the maca favor the physical performance and the mental resistance.

• The maca is used to treat sexual dysfunctions, which is why it is considered a natural viagra.

 

Nutritional Profile of Maca

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The nutritional profile of the root is high, similar to that of cereals such as corn, rice, and wheat: 60% of carbs, 10% of proteins, 8.5% of fiber, and 2.2% of fat.

It has a lipid concentration around 2.2 per cent, including linolenic acid, palmitic acid, and oleic acid. The maca powder has approximately a 10 per cent of protein that contains seven from the eight essential amino acids. Despite not being a complete protein, it is an excellent source of amino acids, specially for vegan athletes.

 

Moreover, the andean maca has many minerals in little quantities (calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, iron, zinc, copper, selenium, iodine, bismuth, manganese, silicon, and tin.

At the same time, it provides group B vitamins which are the energy vitamins, such as vitamin B12 and B2, vitamin C and vitamin E.

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Properties and Benefits

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The maca, which is known with the botanic names of Lepidium peruvianum or Lepidium meyenii, was discovered by the Chinchay culture more than two thousand years ago. This food has aphrodisiac properties, it stimulates fertility and it is an energizer which increases the vitality of its consumer.

Under the Inca rule, it became one of the most important foods and remedies for health of Inca medicine. It was used with diverse therapeutic aims. The Inca people built included this plant among the food that was given to the army in times of war, in order to give them energy. At the time of the Independence of Peru, the maca was forsaken, but from the 1960s onward, it started to gain attention due to studies on the benefits for health that this extraordinary plant provides.