James
Plenty of women go looking for a natural option when their interest in sex dips. Maca, a root from the Andes, is usually one of the first names they find. It also has a modest research record to go with its reputation.
The short answer is a cautious maybe. A few small trials, mostly in women around menopause, found improvements after several weeks of daily use. None was large enough to settle the question, and none tested a finished gummy. It helps to know what the studies actually gave people before choosing a product.
A root from the high Andes
Maca grows high in the Andes of Peru and Bolivia, and it belongs to the mustard family, the same family as broccoli and cabbage. A 2024 review in the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology traces its farming in central Peru back more than 2,000 years. For most of that time it was simply food. The dried roots keep for years. A good harvest could feed people long after it came out of the ground, and in the city of Huancayo maca still turns up in pudding and jam.
Its reputation for fertility is old too. The same review mentions a late 17th-century account of women eating maca because they were struggling to conceive. That’s folklore rather than evidence, though. For evidence, the modern trials are the place to look.
What the research actually shows
In 2010, researchers writing in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine searched 17 medical databases for placebo-controlled trials of maca and sexual function. Only four qualified. Three leaned positive, including one in healthy women going through menopause, while a trial in cyclists found no effect. The authors called the evidence limited, because the trials were few and small.
The women’s study cited most often appeared in the journal Menopause in 2008. Fourteen postmenopausal women took 3.5 grams of powdered maca a day for six weeks, then a placebo for six. While on maca, they scored lower for sexual problems, anxiety and low mood. Their hormone levels didn’t change, which suggests maca wasn’t working by acting like estrogen.
A larger trial followed in 2015, in Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. It gave women whose antidepressants were causing sexual side effects either 3 grams of maca a day or a placebo for 12 weeks. Overall, maca didn’t do significantly better than the placebo, though there were some favorable signals, mostly among women past menopause.
Put together, the picture is encouraging but thin. The trials used several grams of plain maca every day for six to 12 weeks, mostly in women around menopause. None of them looked at a single dose taken before an evening.
What to look for on a maca label
This has made several dietary supplements cater to the supplement patient that seem to be alike and only the label can distinguish them. A good label would identify the form it contains (plain powder, for example, rather than an extract) and indicate how many milligrams of that are presented. Also, it provides a list of all other products included in the product. That is important since there may be other active ingredients in the blend that should be explored.
It’s time to check out those ratios! Immersing about ten parts of root with one part extract is a 10:1 extract strength. The ratio indicates the amount of root used but the extract is not the equivalent of the whole powder in the studies.
Kinky Cubes: maca in a chewable gummy
That checklist is a fair way to judge Kinky Cubes from Cubes. Cubes is a Florida-based brand, and Kinky Cubes is its chewable adult gummy. Cubes positions it for couples and describes it as working for women too. Each gummy lists 500 mg of a 10:1 maca root extract, which Cubes rates as equal to 5,000 mg of root. Mango extract, L-citrulline malate and smaller amounts of ashwagandha and beet root extracts sit alongside it.
The gummy is built for occasional use rather than a daily routine. Cubes says the effects begin in about 30 minutes and last up to three hours. Worth knowing: the research covers maca itself, not this gummy. A first try is best approached with modest expectations.
The label also says who should skip it. Kinky Cubes are for adults only, with no more than two per person per day. They aren’t meant for anyone with a heart condition or blood pressure issues. Cubes also advises checking with a doctor first if you’re pregnant, nursing or taking medication.
So, does maca help women’s libido?
Perhaps, a little. A number of small trials showed benefits after weeks of taking maca (mostly in women at menopause), but scientists are still waiting for larger trials to determine if it is a proven benefit. If a woman is interested in exploring maca, but is looking for a good option to use with a partner, then Kinky Cubes from Cubes is a reasonable option to get started. It’s ideal for couples that prefer to chew on a bone once in a while over making a specific schedule for routine, and for those who do not put their full faith behind something they don’t entirely comprehend the first time.
