Contraception in traditional system of medicine the possible role of sex steroids on female reproduction

ABSTRACT

Contraceptive pills used in allopathic system of medicine contain both estrogen and progesterone or progesterone only. These hormones are responsible for contraception. Fertilization is prevented mainly by inhibiting ovulation or by making the mucus in the female genital tract thick and viscid. In this study different parts of five different plants, and one animal species used as contraceptive in Traditional System of Medicine, were selected to see their efficacy as contraceptive. These substances were subjected to determine the presence of steroid and peptide hormones. Electrochemiluminescence technique was used to detect these hormones in the extract. Results reveal that all the substances contain reasonable amount of steroid hormones i.e., estradiol, progesterone and testosterone ranging from 62.76 pg/ml to 313.6 pg/ml, 0.333 ng/ml to 2.90 ng/ml and 1.22 ng/ml to 22.24 ng/ml. respectively. All these substances were found to contain steroid hormones except the shell of Cyprea moneta which showed no detectable amount of LH and FSH. The concentrations of LI1 and FSH in the extract of Cyprea moneta shell were 0.564 mlU/ml ml and 0.644 mlU/ml, respectively. On the basis of these findings it is postulated that different parts of these plants and animals may create imbalance in the delicate ratio of estrogen and progesterone required for the ovulation and implantation, thus preventing fertilization