Icariin

Icariin is a flavonol glycoside isolated from Epimedium. Lee, et al. discovered that icariin significantly reduced the level of glutamic pyruvic transaminase and sorbitol dehydrogenase released resulting in a 76% protection from toxicity at concentrations of 1μM to 20μM [1]. Zhao, et al. concluded that icariin had the effects of induction of differentiation on HL-60 cells and the mechanism might be related to elevating the cAMP/cGMP ratio [2].
He, et al. reported that icariin in certain concentrations could increase lymphokine-activated killer cell (LAK) activiy in both tumor patients and healthy donors and natural killer cell activity in tumor patients. Icariin stimulated production of tumor necrosis factor-α in monocytes from healthy donors also had been observed. They claimed that generation of LAK cells in presence of an appropriate dose of icariin might be superior to interleukin-2 alone [3].
Icariin is useful for improving sexual performance [4].