The quest for some novel antifertility herbals used as male contraceptives in district Shangla, Pakistan

Abstract Medicinal plants have been used worldwide for population control since ancient times. Today, population growth is one of the burning issues in the world. The main purpose of this research is to record and investigate contraceptive uses of medicinal plants in order to control population growth in Pakistan and in the world through cheaper and safer methods. Field trips were carried out from November 2015 to March 2017. These data were collected during field surveys and interviews from traditional therapists and from the local of the District Shangla. The information gathered was quantitatively analysed through relative frequency of citation (RFC), disease consensus index (DCI) and Jaccard index (JI). The results showed that a total of 48 plant species belonging to 40 genera and 26 families were used by the local communities of the study area as male contraceptives. A detailed study of these reported plants species was done by investigating local name, part used, family name and habitat, mode of utilization etc. This study documented some important medicinal plants for the use and control of male contraception and will attract the researcher's interest for clinical trials, which could be of great scientific support to the society.