Researchers from different science Web sites doubt the result of a 2001 study that claims an unnamed species of Hawaiian mushroom gave some of the female volunteers spontaneous orgasm. The study, conducted by John Holiday and Noah Soule, was published in the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms.

The Web site of IFL Science also published an article about the study on Oct 8 which attracted a lot of clicks on the Internet, prompting other Science portals to disprove the claims of the study. One such Web site, Snopes.com, underscores the failure of Holiday and Soule’s study to meet rigorous scientific standards and has not been replicated or vetted by other researchers in the scientific community.

Researchers from Sciencealert.com, in an article published on Wednesday, points out that there is no actual proof that the mushroom – which belongs to Dictyohora genus of stinkhorn mushrooms and renamed Phallus – causes women to climax. The scientists point out that it was just a one-page observational study with a very small sample size of 10 male and 26 female volunteers.

Only six of the female volunteers reported mild spontaneous orgasm when they were made to smell the mushroom that only grows on top of Hawaii on 600- to 1,000-year-old lava flows from the island’s volcanoes. The remaining 10 experienced elevated heart rate instead when they were administered smaller dose.

All the male volunteers said the smell of the mushroom was foul and it did not have any effect on them sexually. Holiday and Soule says that the result “Suggests that the hormone-like compounds present in the volatile portion of the spore mass may have some similarity to human neurotransmitters released during sexual encounters.”

Besides the small sample size, the scientists note that the pair did not do much to prove the orgasms happened and there is no scientific evidence outside the study that the mushroom could trigger climax in women.

One theory that the Sciencealert researchers forwarded is the mushroom is another one that belongs to the Phallus indusautus that grows in south Asia, Africa, the Americas and Australia. It is considered a female aphrodisiac in Hawaii and is considered also a Chinese herb that goes back to the 7th century AD.

They think the women were perhaps influenced by the mushroom’s reputation, including its penis-like shape that could affect them mentally. They added that some definitive studies would settle the issue once and for all.

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