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Evidence rating: Preliminary to Moderate — one ingredient has meta-analytic support, the rest rest on small single trials
What Spartamax Claims To Be
Spartamax is sold as a men’s vitality formula: stamina, drive, physical performance. It belongs to a crowded category where marketing routinely runs ahead of data. So the useful question is whether the specific plants and amino acids inside have been put in front of actual men in actual trials — and what happened when they were.
What’s Actually In It
The disclosed ingredient list:
- L-Arginine (an amino acid, nitric-oxide precursor)
- Tongkat Ali (Eurycoma longifolia)
- Maca Root (Lepidium meyenii)
- Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera)
- Horny Goat Weed (Epimedium)
- Beet Root
- Grape Seed Extract
One caveat: per-ingredient milligram amounts aren’t published. That matters, because the trials below used specific doses — 1,500–5,000 mg of arginine, 200 mg of Tongkat Ali, 600 mg of ashwagandha, 1,500–3,000 mg of maca. Without a breakdown, you can’t tell whether a formula matches the research or just name-checks it.
What The Research Shows
According to PubMed, the ingredient with the most substantial human evidence here is L-arginine — and the picture is genuinely mixed.
Arginine beats placebo, but it is not a drug. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 10 randomized controlled trials covering 540 men with mild-to-moderate erectile dysfunction found that arginine supplements at 1,500–5,000 mg significantly improved erectile function versus placebo or no treatment (odds ratio 3.37), with improvements in intercourse satisfaction and orgasmic function. Notably, sexual desire scores did not change. DOI
A newer, tougher analysis is much less impressed. A 2024 network meta-analysis of 15 RCTs and 1,000 men ranked nutraceutical interventions against each other and against PDE5 inhibitors. Its blunt summary: “against a background of general ineffectiveness of most nutraceutical interventions,” L-arginine and a carnitine combination were the only ones showing usefulness — and arginine alone ranked at 52%, below sildenafil (79%) and tadalafil (72%). No other supplement regimen reached statistical significance. DOI
That is an important finding to sit with.
Tongkat Ali has one decent trial, and it is a combination trial. In a six-month, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 45 men with age-related androgen deficiency, 200 mg of Eurycoma longifolia daily improved erectile function scores and total testosterone. The biggest effect, though, came in the group that took the extract and did supervised concurrent training three times a week — and the study’s own authors flag as a limitation that there was no supplement-only arm to separate the two. DOI
Maca affects desire without touching hormones. In a 12-week randomized placebo-controlled trial, men taking 1,500 mg or 3,000 mg of gelatinized maca reported improved sexual desire from week 8 onward. Serum testosterone and oestradiol were unchanged, and the effect held after adjusting for depression and anxiety scores — so whatever maca is doing, it is not raising testosterone. DOI
Ashwagandha’s best data is about training, not the bedroom. In an 8-week randomized double-blind trial of 57 men doing resistance training, 300 mg of ashwagandha root extract twice daily produced significantly greater gains in bench-press and leg-extension strength, greater muscle size increases, a larger reduction in body fat percentage, and a greater rise in testosterone (+96 ng/dL vs +18 in placebo). DOI
A systematic review of ashwagandha in male fertility found improvements in sperm concentration and motility, but concluded the data were “too limited to provide novel and sufficiently robust evidence” — only one RCT existed among the four trials it could include. DOI
Horny goat weed, beet root, and grape seed extract: no randomized human trials tying these to male sexual function turned up in the PubMed searches run for this review. Icariin (the Epimedium compound) has laboratory rationale as a weak PDE5 inhibitor — mechanism, not clinical evidence.
The Honest Verdict
What holds up: L-arginine at real doses has repeated randomized evidence for mild-to-moderate erectile function, and ashwagandha has a solid strength-and-body-composition trial behind it. Maca has a clean, if old, trial on desire. These are legitimate ingredients with legitimate — if modest — findings.
What doesn’t: The 2024 network meta-analysis is the reality check. Most supplements in this space do not outperform placebo, and even arginine ranked below both prescription PDE5 inhibitors. The Tongkat Ali trial cannot separate the herb from the exercise program. Nothing here has human trial evidence for Epimedium, beet root, or grape seed in this application. And with no per-ingredient doses published, there’s no way to verify whether the amounts inside match the amounts studied.
Who this makes sense for: A man with mild, situational performance complaints who is otherwise healthy, wants to try a botanical route before or alongside talking to a doctor, and has realistic expectations — meaning “a modest improvement in a questionnaire score,” not a transformation.
Who should skip it: Anyone with a new or worsening erectile problem. That is frequently an early cardiovascular or endocrine signal and it deserves a physician, not a purchase. Also anyone on nitrates or blood-pressure medication, since arginine is vasoactive, and anyone expecting this to substitute for a prescription that works better.
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This article is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Dietary supplements are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Talk to your physician before starting any supplement, especially if you have a diagnosed condition or take medication.
Research cited via PubMed:
- Rhim HC, et al. J Sex Med. 2019;16(2):223-234. DOI
- Barbonetti A, et al. J Sex Med. 2024;21(11):1054-1063. DOI
- Leitão AE, et al. Maturitas. 2020;145:78-85. DOI
- Gonzales GF, et al. Andrologia. 2002;34(6):367-72. DOI
- Wankhede S, et al. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2015;12:43. DOI
- Durg S, et al. Phytomedicine. 2018;50:247-256. DOI