Male Contraceptive Discovery
2,460 views · Published 8 December 2012 · 6:58 · Indexed 30 September 2026
Channel: americanhindi · 2012 · Science & Technology
A plant that reduces fertility, long used by Indonesian men, is being tested as a possible daily male birth control pill. It doesn't look like much: six-feet tall, a leafy shrub growing amid the lush foliage of an Indonesian forest. But a chemical locked in these leaves could become a useful tool for limiting population growth, here in Indonesia and potentially around the globe. To get to the plants, it's a one-hour hike, or a white-knuckled motorcycle ride up a steep mountain path and across two rickety wooden bridges. The plant is called gandarusa and its medicinal qualities have been known to people here for centuries. Traditionally, its leaves have been brewed into an herbal remedy for stress, something to soothe the nerves. But people have talked about an unexpected side effect: reduced male fertility. Now researchers in Surabaya, on the eastern edge of the island of Java, are drying the leaves, chopping them up, extracting the active chemical, and putting it in capsule form to see if it works as a reliable form of male contraception. There's growing confidence that this is a find that's eluded scientists for decades: a cheap, easy-to-make, over the counter daily birth control pill, for men. Bambang Prajogo directs the project at Airlangga University.
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