Introducing the 'magic' reed that gets rid of beer boeps

A common South African plant not only gets rid of beer boeps and helps with aging‚ but also aids male and female reproduction functions.

Traditional healers have long known the benefits of the reed - called papkuil‚ matjiesriet or palmiet in the Western Cape‚ ingcongolo in the Eastern Cape and ibhuma in KwaZulu-Natal – but its powers are now also known to scientists.

A team of researchers from the University of the Western Cape (UWC) has established that Typha capensis‚ a freshwater plant‚ contains many of the medicinal advantages exploited by tradition healers.

“It has been used by traditional healers for generations to improve circulation‚ assist childbirth and to treat many ailments such as venereal diseases‚ dysentery‚ diarrhoea‚ and to enhance the male potency‚ libido and fertility problems‚” said Professor Ralf Winkel‚ head of the Department of Medical BioScience at UWC and leader of the research team.

“The research shows promising signs that using T capensis may assist the body to burn fat and could help with male age-related obesity‚ especially weight gain around the belly. It might also help remedy certain female fertility and maternity complications.”

In 2006 Henkel and his team began the research to determine the efficacy of the plant.

A member of his team‚ Abdulkarem Ilfergane‚ then went further and investigating the effect of the reed on male reproduction functions.

The results revealed that the plant extract significantly boosted testosterone secretion.

At the same time‚ it also “exhibited cytotoxic activity towards prostate cancer cells compared to normal cells”‚ which meant it might be useful to treat male infertility and aging male problems including prostate cancer.

Henkel said that men in South Africa were “consulting traditional healers not only for fertility problems‚ but also when experiencing male aging problems such as weakening of the bones‚ decreasing testosterone levels and prostate cancer”.