BALTIMORE -- As many as half of all American women suffer from sexual dysfunction. As a result, a new herbal supplement that's supposed to help women get back in the mood is getting a lot of attention.

MORE INFORMATION Would You Try Avlimil? Avlimil.com

The magazine advertisement says it all: "They have Viagra. Now we have Avlimil."

The nonhormonal purple tablet taken once a day is one of the many new herbal remedies claiming to help women enhance their sexual libido by treating female sexual dysfunction.

Dr. Irwin Goldstein of Boston University School of Medicine said that women say: "I can't have an orgasm and I'm trying to maintain this relationship and I don't feel like a woman."

In fact, statistics show 43 percent of the female population -- from teenagers through menopausal women -- experience sexual dysfunction. But only recently has this issue come to the forefront thanks, in part, to the little blue pill for men.

"Viagra has changed everything. Viagra has empowered women," Goldstein said.

But Viagra is a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration -- Avlimil is not.

"Avlimil has a lot in it," said Dr. Tyler Cymet, of Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. "Avlimil is what we call a 'trashcan pill.' It has sage to irritate and contract the uterus, and don quoy and black cohash to stop the uterus from contracting."

But is it safe?

"It's not safe if you're pregnant and it may not be safe if you have hypertension and diabetes," Cymet said. "In a pill like this, we don't know what the problem is that you're treating. It's always important to say why are you having the problem."

The Journal of the American Medical Association, whose data is quoted in the Avlimil advertisement, said they "do not endorse or approve any commercial products or services."

"What's more concerning to me is that it has the look exactly of a drug advertisement, but there's this side panel, which is what you see in all the drug advertisements," said Dr. Michael Grodin, of Boston University School of Public Health. "So that would very much be confusing unless you read carefully and saw that there is no claim that this is a drug. That all this is is an herbal supplement."

Grodin also described what he thought of Avlimil.

"This looks exactly like birth-control pills, and I assume that's why they did it," Grodin said. "This is marketing. This is Fifth Avenue, and it's very clever."

None of the doctors could say whether Avlimil does or doesn't work -- only that the testing data available is insufficient. And Cymet said there are many causes of female sexual dysfunction, and if you're having problems, you need to first check with your doctor.