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Five Surprising Benefits of Tongkat Ali

Tongkat ali is one of the hot topics in the supplement world so far in 2025. While its popularity has grown quite rapidly in the last few years, an influx of recent clinical trials which have proven many of the longstanding claims of most of its supporters to be true has seen its sales explode.

However, when you ask people what Tongkat ali can actually do or how, most will have very little idea or only be able to name 1 or 2 benefits. As a result, many people are not using it to its full potential, or are just not using it at all, as they do not follow all of the latest trends and fashions.

That is truly a great shame, as with just a little bit more knowledge and understanding, the vast majority of people (and especially men) could use Tongkat ali to significantly improve various aspects of both their mental and physical health in a way that is both safe and natural.

That is why we have decided to make the following guide to the 5 most surprising benefits of Tongkat Ali. By explaining exactly what it is capable of doing and how we can hopefully help everyone make it a part of their daily routine and enjoy the many health benefits that it offers.

Table of Contents

What Is Tongkat Ali & How Does It Work?

Tongkat ali is an extract that is made from the roots of a herb native to southeast Asia which is known by many names, including Eurycoma longifolia, longjack, and Malaysian ginseng.

It has been used in various traditional medicines in the region for years, primarily due to the longstanding belief that it can provide a range of health benefits which include heightened testosterone levels, reduced blood pressure, and the ability to combat fatigue and fever.

Having now been studied in much greater detail and in scientific settings since its popularity boomed in the West, it has been determined that most of its claimed beneficial effects are indeed true, and they are produced due to some chemical compounds that it contains.

These compounds are the quassinoid compounds eurycomanone and eurycomanol, canthin-6-one metabolites, eurycolactones, eurypeptides, and eurylene and teurilene, both of which are derivatives of a triterpene called squalene.

Tongkat ali is generally taken in dosages ranging from 100 mg to 600 mg per day, as this range has been deemed to be capable of producing significant health benefits for most people, without putting the user at risk of developing any unpleasant side effects.

The optimal daily dose is thought to be between 200 mg and 400 mg, as this should enable you to enjoy all of the many health benefits that Tongkat Ali can offer to their full capacity, as there is a belief that anything higher, while safe, will not produce any additional benefits.

Some studies also suggest that splitting the daily dosages into two identical, equally spread-out doses is slightly more effective than just using one large dose, but there is very little evidence to confirm that this is true.

Five Surprising Benefits Of Tongkat Ali

Improves Testosterone Levels

Easily the most popular benefit of Tongkat Ali, and the primary reason for it being included in as many men’s health supplements as it is, is its ability to significantly boost testosterone levels, which it achieves through several different mechanisms.

Most of its testosterone-boosting properties are linked to the fact that it contains a compound called eurycomanone, which has been demonstrated to encourage steroidogenic activity.

Eurycomanone has been shown to have particularly prominent anti-estrogenic effects. This means it can inhibit the production of aromatase enzymes, preventing testosterone from being converted into oestrogen in the Leydig cells of the testes and stopping your natural testosterone levels from dropping.

When consumed in larger quantities, eurycomanone has also shown great promise when it comes to inhibiting phosphodiesterase (PDE) activity. This results in an accumulation of cyclic AMP and an increase in both cholesterol transport and pregnenolone production, the latter of which is a precursor to the biosynthesis of testosterone.

Finally, eurycomanone also promotes the activation of Cytochrome P450 17A1 (CYP17a), an enzyme that increases the production of two of the primary testosterone precursors, those being dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and androstenedione.

By simultaneously improving a man’s natural testosterone production and then preventing any testosterone that is produced from being converted into oestrogen, Tongkat Ali works to promote generally enhanced testosterone levels from virtually all angles (1).

Enhances Male Sexual Health & Functions

The second most popular benefit of Tongkat ali is its ability to enhance male sexual health and functions. Much of this occurs as a direct result of the ability of eurycomanone to prevent testosterone from being converted into oestrogen in the Leydig cells of the testes, the primary site of sperm production in men, and stop your natural testosterone levels from dropping.

However, it also offers a selection of additional benefits which are not linked solely to increases in testosterone levels that will benefit a man’s sexual health and functions as well, particularly in hypogonadal men.

These include producing an aphrodisiac effect that will increase a man’s sex drive and libido, improving erectile function and combatting any cases of erectile dysfunction which have already occurred, boosting a man’s fertility, semen volume, and sperm count and quality, and generally improving his sexual health and confidence (2).

Most of these come as a direct result of Tongkat Ali’s ability to enhance the production of both luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), two gonadotropins that are well known to notably elevate testosterone and sperm production in the testes.

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Boosts Exercise Performance

Due to a combination of its ability to improve your testosterone and energy levels, Tongkat Ali also possesses the power to notably enhance your physical performance, which can be useful when engaging in either sexual activity or various forms of strenuous exercises, such as weight lifting.

A recent study examined the exercise performance of men who took a 100 mg dose of tongkat ali each day for 5 weeks while completing a daily circuit training routine. This routine included performing 2 sets of 10 reps of 10 different exercises, each time using a weight that equalled 60 per cent of your 1 rep max and taking a 1-minute rest in between exercises.

The results showed that the men generally experienced far greater improvements in their exercise performance, muscle strength and lean body mass when compared to the control group who performed the same training routine but took a placebo, instead of Tongkat Ali.

A similar study on older men and women between the ages of 57 and 72 which used five weeks of tongkat ali supplementation at 400 mg per day also saw the participants record notable improvements in hand grip strength, while a third study which used a 200 mg dose of Tongkat ali per day noted that peak power output during a cycling test increased (3).

Relieves Anxiety & Stress

At least one study found evidence that Tongkat ali produces an anxiolytic effect, which means it can reduce both stress and anxiety. Trials show that this is largely due to its ability to slow the production of cortisol, the hormone directly responsible for both stress and anxiety.

The improved testosterone levels that Tongkat ali can help produce have also been proven to combat feelings of stress and anxiety, as are reduced levels of anger, confusion and tension, all of which sufficient Tongkat ali supplementation is capable of providing.

As a result, using Tongkat ali supplements may not only help to relieve feelings of stress, anxiety and even depression but there is also evidence that their use is capable of improving the mood of people who are not even experiencing any of these issues to begin with (4).

Promotes Accelerated Muscle Growth

We finish with what is perhaps one of the least talked about benefits of Tongkat ali, which is its ability to accelerate muscle growth in men and women who engage in resistance training. This is likely due to the fact that this effect is a result of multiple other benefits that the compound can offer combining into one, rather than it simply stimulating muscle growth independently.

By improving testosterone production and levels, enhancing your energy levels and workout performance, increasing muscle strength and endurance, and reducing fat storage and cortisol and stress levels all at the same time, Tongkat ali can enable you to train significantly harder and longer than you would be capable of doing on your own.

This will help to give you a solid platform from which to build muscle, while then also ensuring that all of your hard work does not go to waste by repairing the muscle fibres much more quickly (5).

Discover five (more) surprising benefits of Tongkat Ali here