Drinking

If your bedroom has been more like a museum than an amusement park lately, you may want to look for a chemical or supernatural solution. Well cats and kittens, get your potential partner to do some horizontal dancing with a love potion, that's L.O.V.E.

For millennia, from Beijing to Buenos Aires, people have searched for ways to attract a lover, spice up an existing relationship or put a little spark back into the plug. You only have to look in the back of magazines or at the thousands of Internet sites devoted to the topic to see that the quest for an ecstasy elixir is alive and well.

Legends about them abound. Like a form of genetic memory, stories get passed on in gym classes and slumber parties across the continent, and maybe the world. Sex is about satisfying the senses, preferably with someone you love, or at least someone who won't make you want to have your telephone number unlisted.

Many aphrodisiacs and love potions work by heightening sensitivity. There are so many that it would be impossible to describe all the things that have been used, and are used, to light someone else's fire. The short list below contains some of the most popular or potent aphrodisiacs and might help you find the match that best works for you.

Eat Me

For Her: Dong Quai- also known as female ginseng or Siberian ginseng. It's reported to increase energy and blood flow to the genital region, warming the honey in the hive, so to speak

For Him: Yohimbe- extracted from the bark of a West African tree. After ingestion, users often report the presence of a different type of "wood." It stimulates arousal by irritating the urinary tract. It's strong enough that it has to be prescribed by a doctor and shouldn't be mixed with certain medications. [Mental note: make an appointment with Doctor Feelgood.]

Drink Me

For Her: Crema de Damiana. Damiana (Latin: Turnera aphrodisia) is a Mexican herb purported to send a woman's libido into overdrive, even causing erotic dreams when taken before bedtime. It makes the genital area extra sensitive to touch by stimulating the genito-urinary tract.

For Him: Extract of Gingko Biloba. Ginko Biloba has been used in Chinese medicine for centuries to alleviate male impotence or enhance male libido and sexual performance by increasing blood flow to the extremities. Mix it up in a banana milkshake and get ready to tumble.

For Both: Read a recipe to the mythical Love Potion #9. Use judiciously.

Smell Me

Scents affect the limbic system, the pleasure centre of the brain.

For Her: The essential oils ylang ylang, jasmine or rose. Place a few diluted drops in a candle diffuser or burn an incense stick to make the limbic system, and the rest of the body, do the limbo, right into the bedroom.

For Him: In a recent study, 13 per cent of male subjects experienced an increase in penile blood flow after being exposed to the combined scents of doughnuts and cola. Hmmm, looks like Homer was on to something there.

Of course, the best aphrodisiacs are imagination, creativity and communication. It's been written that nothing turns a woman on more than a man who knows what he's doing. In other words, the couple that talks together also rocks together.