I found this interesting medical study on a natural spermicide! – neem oil! Neem is a tree that grows mostly in tropical areas. It is used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine.
“In an uncontrolled clinical trial involving 225 healthy fertile women aged 18- 35 years performed to assess the efficacy of the neem oil as an anti-fertility agent, subjects were instructed to insert 1 mL of the oil into the vagina with a plastic applicator 5 min prior to coitus and no other contraception was used. After 16 months of use only three pregnancies due to drug failure were reported; there were 30 pregnancies due to noncompliance (i.e. women who did not use the oil as instructed).”
-Mittal A, Kapur S, Garg S, Pharma M, Upadhyay SN, Suri S, et al. et al. Clinical trial with praneem polyherbal cream in patients with abnormal vaginal discharge due to microbial infections. Aust N Z J Obstet Gynecol. 1995;35(2):190–191. [PubMed]
More info:
“Scientists at India’s Defense Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS) have …..found that neem oil is strongly spermicidal. Rhesus monkeys and human spermatozoa, for example, became totally immotile within 30 seconds of contacting the oil.
Studies in 20 rats, 8 rabbits, 14 rhesus monkeys, and 10 human volunteers showed that neem oil applied intra vaginally before sexual intercourse prevented pregnancy. Histo-pathological studies on the rat tissues (vagina, cervix, and uterus) showed no ill effects. By contrast, nonyl-phenoxy polyethoxy ethanol, the spermicide in a popular vaginal contraceptive cream, produced obvious irritation. Radioisotope studies indicated that neem oil was not absorbed from the vagina.
As a follow-up to these experiments, the Indian army provided neem oil to 20 soldiers and their families as a birth-control measure. This trial was considered so successful that the colonel in charge of the program was honored by the prime minister. A neem oil formulation called “Sensal” is now sold in India for contraceptive purposes.”
– National Academy Press, NEEM, A TREE FOR SOLVING GLOBAL PROBLEMS.
Gp.Capt.K.C. Sinha and Lt. Col. S.S. Riar. 1985. Neem oil-an ideal contraceptive. Biological Memoirs 10(1 an 2):107-114.
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