Chinese scientists came very close to discovering and giving to the world an oral contraceptive for men from the cotton seed plant. Over 75,000 Chinese men were given this substance, known as gossypol and it was found to be effective. However the study showed that there were two effects associated with this substance which prevented it from becoming the world’s first mal oral contraceptive. In a certain number of men there was a decrease in the potassium content in the blood, while in 25 per cent of men it induced an irreversible effect. The men could not father a child even though there was no decrease in libido.
Researches are continuing both in China and USA to study other substances from the cotton seed plant similar to gossypol which may not cause the undesirable side effects. But the excitement and hopes raised by the discovery of gossypol have abated. The story of the facts that led to the discovery of gossypol needs to be told.
No children were born in the village of Wang in the province of Nanching in China in the 1940s causing panic in village. The village elders blamed the young women of Wang for this and sent their young men to neighbouring village to bring wives. There was still no joyous sound of crying babies. The men were then sent to village further off and brought back as wives young widows with children. They faithfully did this but still, for full ten years no babies were born.
A visiting government chronicler passing through Wang noted this fact and also in his notes, mentioned that the villagers were so poor that they could not even refine the cotton seed oil they were using for cooking. In the 1950s babies started appearing in Wang and the villagers thought that the curse on the villages has passed away. Another chronicler passing through at this time noted that the standard of life in Wang had improved and that the villagers were now using soyabean oil for cocking instead of cotton seed oil.
A research worker noticed this apparent relationship between the use of unrefined cotton oil and the absence of babies and concluded in a paper published in 1957 that “the fact that when they stopped eating cotton seed oil the birth control effect automatically disappears shows that it is the most economical, convenient and natural method for controlling births. “ Nothing much happened and this remarkable observation went unnoticed.
In 1970, Professor Qian, the Head of the Department of Pharmacology at Nanching, administered cotton seed oil to patients of bronchitis. Perhaps he had remembered the earlier observation about Wang. In addition to asking for different tests to be carried out before and after giving cotton seed oil, he also asked for the sperm count. The cotton seed oil was given to five men and its was found that four of these men had very low counts of sperms while the fifth had no living sperms at all. None of these five men would have been able to father a child. Gossypol acts by reducing the number of sperms. The first oral male contraceptive had been discovered.
Chinese scientists have not given up and are now working on the male contraceptive effect of a plant called Tripteryium wilfordii. Interestingly this work also began because patients with bronchitis were given this plant and the men come back with low sperm counts. The World Health Organization is participating in the studies of this plant and it is hoped that this may be more successful than gossypol.
In India investigators observed that the stalks of Piper betle induce an anti fertility effect in male rats.
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