Tongkat Ali or Pasak Bumi?

Pasak bumi is one of several colloquial names for the small tree-like shrub Eurycoma longifolia, a plant native to Indonesia and Malaysia that has several important uses in the traditional herbal medicinal practices of the region.
In fact Pasak bumi is the common name for this plant in Indonesia. In the West we know the plant by the name Tongkat ali, its more common name in Malaysia and Singapore.
Tongkat ali has been used by the peoples of this region for thousands of years, and was traditionally used to reduce fevers, treat malaria and to combat common infections. However its most famous use, and the one for which it has attracted particular attention in the West, was as an aphrodisiac and male sexual performance enhancer.
Tongkat ali has been, and is being, intensively studied by scientists, and indeed extracts of this plant have shown potentially exciting results in-vitro against certain kinds of cancer cells. Researchers in Taiwan isolated sixty five different compounds produced by the plant thought to have an effect upon human biochemistry, of which ten were strongly toxic to human lung and breast cancer cells. It must be stressed that research in this area is still in its early phases, and only in-vitro testing has so far been carried out. To this author's knowledge, no in-vivo studies to assess the plant's efficacy against cancers have yet been performed.
Whilst the plant and its extracts are being studied for their effects against cancer cells, Pasak bumi extract continues to grow in popularity as a male performance, fertility and libido enhancer. Evidence for its efficacy in this area comes mostly from experiments upon rats and other rodents. Male rats exposed to an extract of the plant have been observed to exhibit increased mating activity, and were found to have raised levels of testosterone.
Pasak bumi is now a protected species in Malaysia. Sadly, large areas of Malaysian forest are destroyed each year thanks to both legitimate and illegal logging operations, and the plant's natural habitat is being greatly eroded as a result. The increased value of the plant due to demand from Western customers has also led to a black-market trade in the plant, further threatening its survival in Malaysia.
Added to the problems of illegal harvesting of the plant is the generally disreputable nature of many suppliers of Tongkat ali products. A recent trading standards investigation by British authorities found that as many as 70% of products sold in health shops and by online retailers contained no active ingredient at all or so little as to be ineffective. Of the remaining 30% of products, 10% were unable to adequately document their sources - in other words, unable to demonstrate that their Pasak bumi had been ethically and responsibly sourced.
It seems very likely that demand for Pasak bumi will continue to rise, and it is greatly to be hoped that manufacturers and retailers will take more care to ensure not only that their products contain enough of the plant to be effective, but that they also source their product only from Indonesian plantations or Western horticulturalists. It is also to be hoped that consumer awareness of the threat to this plant also leads to the more responsible manufacture and retail of its extract.