NOW Foods Horny Goat Weed Extract 750 mg + Maca Review

Maca (Lepidium meyenii) is a Peruvian root used traditionally for energy and libido, and NOW adds 150 mg of it as a complementary 'tonifying' herb alongside the 750 mg of horny goat weed. The honest position is that maca, like horny goat weed, is a traditional vitality herb with modest and mixed human evidence — the 150 mg here is a light, supportive addition rather than a clinically-dosed amount. It's disclosed openly (not hidden in a proprietary blend), so you know exactly what you're getting. Think of it as a small bonus herb, not a second active driver — and note it makes this a light blend rather than a pure epimedium extract.

About 22.5 mg per tablet — a generous raw dose at a low guaranteed standardisation. The Supplement Facts panel states the 750 mg extract is standardised to a minimum of 3% icariin, which works out to roughly 22.5 mg of icariin per tablet. (We originally repeated a 10% figure from the listing; the bottle guarantees min. 3% — corrected 27 Aug 2026.) That's well below Nature's Way's and Swanson's 10% (~50 mg), Double Wood's 20% or Toniiq's 40%, so if you're optimising for the active flavonoid per serving, the higher-percentage single-herb extracts are clearly better. NOW's appeal is the trusted brand, the generous raw dose, the maca addition, and one-a-day convenience rather than potency.

No — keep expectations grounded. Horny goat weed's icariin inhibits PDE5 in the test tube (Xin 2003, PMID 12646997), and maca is a traditional libido herb, but neither has robust human-trial evidence for treating erectile dysfunction, and a light 150 mg of maca doesn't change that. This is a traditional vitality tonic with a recognisable brand and a small complementary herb — not a medication. Use it with a measured expectation; if erectile dysfunction is your real concern, see a clinician for proven treatments and because ED can signal underlying health issues.

A little. NOW delivers this as a tablet, which means it includes binders and a coating to hold the tablet together — the single-herb capsule products (Toniiq, Double Wood, Nature's Way) avoid those excipients and deliver just the extract in a shell. It's not a quality problem, and the one-tablet-a-day format is convenient, but if you prefer the cleanest possible delivery with no tablet binders, a capsule pick is marginally cleaner. For most buyers the tablet format is a non-issue and the daily convenience is a plus.

Three reasons: brand familiarity, the maca addition, and convenience. NOW Foods is a long-established, widely-trusted supplement house, so some buyers simply prefer a name they recognise; the 150 mg of maca appeals to those who want a small vitality-herb stack rather than epimedium alone; and one tablet a day for 90 days is simple. The trade-off is that it's a light blend at a low guaranteed standardisation (min. 3% icariin on the label, ~22.5 mg per tablet), so it delivers less active flavonoid than the standardised single-herb extracts above it. Pick it if you value the brand, the maca, and the convenience over icariin content.

1. [1] Xin 2003 PMID 12646997 — Effects of icariin on cGMP-specific PDE5 and cAMP-specific PDE4 activities. In vitro, icariin inhibited cGMP-specific PDE5 with an IC50 of 0.432 µmol/L — the mechanistic basis for the herb's reputation, but a bench/enzyme finding rather than proof of a human erectile-function benefit from a min.-3% extract plus light maca.
2. [2] Zhang 2007 PMID 17419678 — Epimedium-derived phytoestrogen flavonoids exert beneficial effect on preventing bone loss in late postmenopausal women: a 24-month randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled trial. 60 mg/day icariin preserved bone mineral density over 24 months in postmenopausal women — the strongest human RCT for Epimedium, and a bone outcome rather than a sexual one. Cited to keep expectations calibrated to the actual evidence base.