Assessment of antiandrogenic and antispermatogenic activity of Hedera nepalensis in adult male rats

Abstract

The eventual fate of life on the planet is under the pressure of the population explosion, which is a noteworthy reason for pollution and neediness, particularly in the developing and under developed countries (Thanga et al., 2012). Fertility regulation, including contraceptive methods and infertility management, has become the major concern to improve reproductive health (Gupta & Sharma, 2006).Despite the fact that advances have been made for the development of safe, improved and effective contraceptive agent for female, progress on male is still lagged far behind. Currently available methods for male contraception results either unintended pregnancies or lead to complete sterility (El-Kashoury et al., 2009). Hence, development of safe, reversible and biologically active contraceptives for male is necessary and can provide remarkable public and social health benefits (Dehghan et al., 2006).According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 80% people use plants for their basic health need (Okigbo et al., 2008) and about 70% of the available drugs are derived from natural and botanicals products (Newman & Cragg, 2016). Many plants having antifertility agents have also been reported with antispermatogenic, semen coagulant and spermicidal activities (Gupta & Tandon, 2004;Sharma et al., 2013). In the recent past, research has been done to explore the biologically active components of medicinal plants that interfere with spermatogenic progression or natural process of reproduction (Aladakatti et al., 2010;Jensen, 2002). Hedera, commonly called as "ivy", is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Araliaceae which have about 70 genera and