Abstract
Approximately 80 % of the population in Africa use traditional medicinal
plants to improve their state of health. The reason of such a wide use of
medicinal plants has been mainly attributed to their accessibility and
affordability. Expectation of little if any side effects, of a “natural” and
therefore safe treatment regimen, as well as traditional beliefs
additionally contribute to their popularity. Several of these plants are
used by women to relieve problems related to their reproductive health,
during or after their reproductive life, during pregnancy, or following
parturition. The African pharmacopoeia thus provides plants used for
preventing and/or treating gynecological infections, dysmenorrhea, irregular
menstruations, oligomenorrhea or protracted menstruation, and infertility.
Such plants may then be used as antimicrobians, emmenagogues, or as
suppressors of uterine flow. African medicinal plants are also used during
pregnancy for prenatal care, against fetal malposition or malpresentation,
retained dead fetus, and against threatened abortion. Some others are used
as anti-fertilizing drugs for birth control. Such plants may exert various
activities, namely, anti-implantation or early abortifacient, anti-zygotic,
blastocytotoxic, and anti-ovulatory effects. Some herbs could also act as
sexual drive suppressors or as a post-coital contraceptive by reducing the
fertility index. A number of these plants have already been subject to
scientific investigations and many of their properties have been assessed as
estrogenic, oxytocic, or anti-implantation. Taking into account the
diversity of the African pharmacopoeia, we are still at an early stage in
the phytochemical and pharmacological characterization of these medicinal
plants that affect the female reproductive system, in order to determine,
through in vitro and in vivo studies, their pharmacological
properties and their active principles.
Key words
women reproductive health - African pharmacopoeia - emmenagogue - uterine flow suppressors - anti-infertility - abortifacient
