Abstract

Herbal Spermicidals ���¢�������� A Better Contraceptive Approach

Author(s): H.N.Shivaprasad, Leena Vaidya, M.D.Kharya

The world’s population is ballooning and by the end of this century about 8-10 billion people will inhabit the earth and out of them, 75-80% will be living in developing countries. Rapid population growth obstructs the overall developmental efforts and complicates the existing problems associated with the progress of any country. Family planning measures such as sterilization, use of contraceptives pills and intra uterine devices are the common ways to control the situation. Apart from these, adoption of natural methods like rhythm methods and coitus interrupts are the other birth controlling approaches. The search for widely accepted contraceptives still continues, as none of the available contraceptive is completely safe, effective and reversible. Out of the various population controlling devices, vaginal spermicidal contraceptives figure out to be preferred approach offering considerable advantages with regard to aforementioned expectations. Safer to a great extent, shortcomings of herbal spermicidal agents can be reduced by polyherbal formulations and thus an ideal spermicidal formulation can be expected from herbal origin.