Diversity of medicinal plants used as male contraceptives: An initiative towards herbal contraceptives

Abstract

In the recent era, population control is a global issue as well as national community health concern. Plants are being used as a source of medicines by human beings since ancient times. This study highlights the collection, identification and diversity of medicinal plants concerning their traditional knowledge to get better access to the herbal male contraception. Local informants and traditional health practitioners were consulted for information about the local names, distribution, part used and mode of utilization of the medicinal plant. To select plants with high medicinal uses, different quantitative measurements i.e., Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC), Disease Consensus Index (DCI) and descriptive methods of Jaccard Index (JI) was performed. A total of 100 plant species (used for infertility by the local communities) belonging to 50 families and 91 genera were collected. Jaccard Index results showed that 28 plant species were reported for the first time used as male contraceptives in Pakistan. The frequency of citation (FC) value ranged from 35 to 56. Plants with high Relative frequency of citation (RFC) and Disease Consensus index (DCI) values showed a high consensus for the antifertility among informants and THPs. Our study is focused on the diversity and priority of medicinal plants as male contraceptives.