Alligator Pepper, Pawpaw Widely Used Herbal Male Contraceptives.

For long, men had only a limited choice of
contraceptive methods like abstinence,
withdrawal, condoms, vasectomy, etc.
Despite this, men went on participating in various efforts
to control fertility for age.
For a long time, man played a prominent
role in contraceptive use until the
introduction of oral contraceptives and
modern intrauterine contraceptive devices
(IUDs) in the second half of the 1900s.
With the development of successful
methods on females, most of the burden of
contraceptive are now on women, thus
taking men out from the sphere of
contraceptive. Globally, men have not
shared the responsibility equally with
women for fertility regulation; the lack of
male involvement may also reflect the
limited options available to men.
The use of herbs is almost universal among
non-industrialised societies, including
Nigeria. In fact, most Nigerians, especially
those living in rural communities still prefer
to solve their health problems by consulting
traditional healers.
But the patronage of traditional healers by
men in Nigeria for contraceptive purposes
is not an exception as indicated by the
findings of an ethnobotanical survey on
herbal male contraceptives used in the
South-western part of Nigeria.
This was a survey carried out by Iyabo
Mobolawa Adebisi and Shaibu Oricha Bello
from the Usmanu Danfodiyo University,
Sokoto. It was a 2011 study published in
the African Journal of Pharmacy and
Pharmacology. It took inventory of plants
used as male contraceptives in the region.
Using convenient sampling, one local
government was selected from each of four
states. These were Sagamu Local
government area in Ogun State; Ibadan
Southwest LG in Oyo State; Ede LG in Osun
State and Ofa local government in Kwara
State. The investigation was conducted by
direct interview of 15 traditional healers
and medicinal plant sellers, documenting
consultations for contraception by male,
names of medicinal plants used, methods of
preparation and doses of administration.
Traditional healers are person recognised
by the community as persons competent to
provide health care by using vegetable,
animal and mineral substances and other
certain methods based on the social, cultural
and religious background. Similarly,
traditional medicinal ingredient traders are
those involved in buying and selling of
plants, animals and insects used in making
herbal preparations.
The results of the survey, which indicated
that over six different plant materials were
used either as single preparation or in
combination as male contraceptives, found
that alligator pepper and pawpaw bark
were the most widely used herbs as male
contraceptive. Their common methods of
application include oral decoction, dried
powder applied to skin incisions and as
rings soaked in herbs and worn on the
fingers.
The plants used as male contraceptives
include leaves of Boehaavia diffusa
(commonly referred to as Hogweed or
Etiponla); Parkia biglobo seeds (commonly
referred to as locust beans or Iru);
decoction of Pawpaw bark (Ibepe in
Yoruba); Alligator pepper seed (Ataare in
Yoruba); decoction of Xylopia aethipica
(commonly referred to as Eeru Alamo in
Yoruba or Negro or Ethiopian pepper);
decoction of Tetrapleura tetraptera fruits
(Aidan in Yoruba); and lime juice (Osan
wewe in Yoruba).
The leaves of Hogweed, locust beans,
pawpaw bark and alligator pepper seed
were used in the ring form by the men.
Ring form of application involves boiling a
metal ring in water extract of the plant for
hours. The ring is then worn on the finger
during sexual activities.
However, some of these plants were also
used in the combination for male
contraception. The combination of
Hogweed, locust bean and alligator pepper
as well as pawpaw and alligator pepper
were used in the ring form. Also, the
combination of pawpaw bark and
Tetrapleura tetraptera was used as incision
while the combination of lime juice and
potash were taken as decoction. Incision
involves making up to seven cuts on the leg
and applying the dried powder of the plant
to the fresh wound.
Nonetheless, all the traditional healers and
medicinal plant sellers interviewed stated
that all plants and methods of application
were equally effective.
The researchers remarked that even in
traditional medicinal practices, male
contraceptive is not in vogue because only
26.7 per cent of interviewees have ever
been consulted for or offer male
contraceptives. According to them, “the
availability of female orthodox hormonal
contraceptives that are either frequently
free or are offered at a very low cost may
have discouraged the continued practice of
traditional contraceptive methods,
especially in case of males, with loss of
knowledge of its practice.”
“This possibility makes it very important to
conduct further studies to document
available knowledge of medicinal plants
used for male contraception. The use of
medicinal plants as decoction and incision
may be consistent with pharmacological
effects but the wearing of rings that have
been boiled in herbal extracts or
concoctions for contraception may be
difficult to explain,” they indicated in their
report.
According to them, trans-dermal delivery of
the active chemical(s) may be an
explanation but the requirement for putting
on the ring only during sexual activities
makes this explanation unlikely.
Quite a number of medicinal plants like
Achyranthes aspera (èèmá àgbò in Yoruba
and óòdådå ngwèlè in Igbo) and pawpaw
have already been shown previously by
researchers to have male anti-fertility
properties. Pawpaw seed extract has been
shown to possess in vitro sperm
immobilising effect on human sperm.