>>2873649I was going to write out quite a bit more actually, but I'm kinda tired right now so I'll just summarize everything else I was going to say:
Most aphrodisiacs are pretty much just placebo, unless they're dopamine receptor agonists, which can have a bit of a libido enhancing effect, if they act on oxytocin which does various things (this is pretty much how mdma has this effect), or if it acts on melanocortin receptors, which seems actually quite effective. Drug which act on melanocortin receptors actually directly increase libido, acting as a real aphrodisiac. There are downsides though to each one of the melanocortin receptor agonists, and I'll list those at the bottom of this post.
so, for dopamine:
cheese (tyrosine)
pumpkin seeds (tyrosine)
l-dopa (slightly more direct than tyrosine)
dopamine reuptake inhibitors:
wellbutrin
adderall
ritalin
various kinds of illegal drugs and stuff
oxytocin:
mdma
melanocortin receptors:
melanotan 2:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanotan_IIpros: effective,comparatively cheap
cons: needs to be subcutaneously injected since it's a peptide, causes skin to tan more quickly
bremelanotide:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bremelanotidepros: effective, doesn't turn your skin brown
cons: also has to be subcutaneously injected, somewhat expensive
THIQ:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THIQpros: can be swallowed in pill form, effective
cons: not tested on humans yet, very expensive (unless if you synthesized it yourself)