Administration of spermin ('Sperminum-Poehl') restores vital energy and checks senile decline, because the body's spermin diminishes with age and exogenous supplementation replaces the lost physiological factor.
The rejuvenation claim is the core promise of Poehl’s spermine theory: that spermin is a physiological factor whose age-related decline drives senescence and whose supplementation restores vigor and checks senile decline. It rested on uncontrolled case-series reporting in Poehl’s own 1898 monograph and its English-language successor, not on any controlled comparison. The claim is refuted: spermine is an ordinary cellular polyamine (Lightfoot and Hall, Nucleic Acids Res 2014; Pegg, J Biol Chem 2018) with no demonstrated rejuvenating action, and Poehl’s clinical doctrine was severely criticized and finally rejected (Mann, The Biochemistry of Semen, 1954).
Appears in
Sources
- Die physiologisch-chemischen Grundlagen der Spermintheorie, nebst klinischem Material zur therapeutischen Verwendung des Sperminum-Poehl — Poehl, Alexander. *Die physiologisch-chemischen Grundlagen der Spermintheorie: nebst klinischem Material zur therapeutischen Verwendung des Sperminum-Poehl* (uebersetzt aus dem Russischen). St. Petersburg: A. Wienecke, 1898.
- Rational organotherapy: with reference to urosemiology — Poehl, A. von [and others]. *Rational organotherapy: with reference to urosemiology*. London: J. & A. Churchill, 1906.
- The Biochemistry of Semen — Mann, Thaddeus. *The Biochemistry of Semen*. London: Methuen; New York: Wiley, 1954, pp. 161-162.
- Endogenous polyamine function: the RNA perspective — Lightfoot, Helen L; Hall, Jonathan. 'Endogenous polyamine function--the RNA perspective.' *Nucleic Acids Research* 2014;42(18):11275-11290. PMID 25232095. doi:10.1093/nar/gku837.
- Introduction to the Thematic Minireview Series: Sixty plus years of polyamine research — Pegg, Anthony E. 'Introduction to the Thematic Minireview Series: Sixty plus years of polyamine research.' *Journal of Biological Chemistry* 2018;293(48):18681-18692. PMID 30377254. doi:10.1074/jbc.TM118.006291.