Herbal Pharmacy
Compare prices across UK shops, from £3.99.
Supplements, stimulating gels and aromas. This category needs a plainer warning than the rest of the site: these are not medicines, they are not regulated as medicines, and none of them is a treatment for a medical problem.
What follows is what the evidence actually supports and what to be careful with. Each product page shows live prices from the UK retailers stocking it.
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Herbal Pharmacy: how to choose
Read this before you buy
Nothing in this category is licensed as a medicine, and nothing here treats erectile dysfunction, low libido or anything else. Those are medical issues with real, effective, prescribed treatments — and both can be an early sign of something worth investigating, including heart disease and diabetes. See a GP or a pharmacist. That is genuinely better advice than anything on this page.
The specific danger: unlicensed "herbal" pills
Products of this kind have repeatedly been found to contain undeclared prescription drugs — sildenafil and its analogues — despite being sold as herbal. That is dangerous if you take nitrates for angina, where the combination can drop blood pressure to a fatal level. It is also illegal to sell. Buy from established UK retailers, and treat any product promising pharmaceutical results as suspect.
Poppers, plainly
Alkyl nitrites are sold as "aromas" and "room odourisers" for legal reasons, not because that is what they are for. If you use them anyway, the things that actually hurt people are: swallowing them, which can be fatal; combining them with erectile dysfunction medication, which can cause a catastrophic drop in blood pressure; and getting them on skin or in eyes, which burns. They are flammable, they degrade once opened, and they have been associated with vision damage.
Stimulating gels
These work by irritation — menthol, capsaicin or similar — which is a real sensation, not an aphrodisiac. Patch test on your inner arm first: a warming gel on sensitive tissue can go from pleasant to painful very quickly, and washing it off is harder than you expect. Start with less than the instructions suggest.
If you take anything else
Herbal does not mean inert. St John's Wort interferes with a long list of prescriptions including hormonal contraception; yohimbine affects blood pressure and interacts badly with several antidepressants. If you take any regular medication, ask a pharmacist before adding anything from this category. It is a free conversation.
On prices here
Prices update as retailers change them and include delivery where published. Confirm on the retailer's page before paying. We may earn a commission if you buy; it never costs you more and never affects the ranking. Nothing here is medical advice.