Study the Effect of Antispermatogenic Agent- Chebulinic Acid on Male Reproductive System and Benign Prostate Hyperplasia (BPH)

Abstract

Population growth is a major problem worldwide for which several control methods are currently being used that may lead to reduced total fertility rate in men and women. Overpopulation is a significant contributor to overall environmental degradation process. It is estimated that half of the conceptions are unplanned and half of the resulting pregnancies are undesired (Henshaw, 1998). In most of the cases, half of the undesirable pregnancies are due to failure of effective contraception (Finer & Henshaw, 2003). In low and middle income countries, contraception is obscured further by restricted access to many available methods, both and culturally and economically. Unplanned pregnancies accounts unwanted children who disproportionately suffer from poverty and hence neglected. Contraception is a strategy to avoid unwanted pregnancies by means of certain biochemical agents like hormonal combination, physical barriers (female & male condoms) and other advanced technologies. Male contraceptive drugs have always remained obscure. To develop a potent male contraceptive drug is not only challenging but its effectiveness and safety are major constraints. For a successful contraceptive drug, it must have no effect on libido or sexual functionmoreover it must be reversible. There are various approaches for the development of male contraception which have been explored such as inhibition of spermatogenesis, interference with sperm structure and function, interruption of sperm transport, interruption of sperm deposition or prevention of sperm-egg interaction. Only hormonal or testosterone analogs which can alter endogenous androgen production are in clinical trials as male contraceptive agents. Unavailability of male contraceptive drugs in the market results in a high rate of unplanned pregnancies, particularly in teenagers mostly leading to maternal mortality. In some cases, the consequences also involve ethical, social and financial costs associated with abortions. To approach this dearth of contraceptive alternatives in men, it is desirable to find natural compounds that could inhibit spermatogenesis and fertility in human without having any adverse or deleterious side effects on the body. Finding an oral natural contraceptive would allow couples to control their fertility without consulting a health worker, which in turn would markedly increase the number of couples practicing family planning.Now a days, herbal medicines are most promising in the field of research and search for male antifertility agents from natural products remains a potential area of investigation (Kamal et al., 2003). Scope of the work In the present study, natural extract of Terminalia Chebula as well it‘s pure compound were explored to check their contraceptive efficacy. In this series, one of it‘s pure compound Chebulinic Acid showed strong spermicidal activity on rodent as well as human sperms. Further chebulinic Acid was established as a reversible oral male contraceptive in the rat model and it‘s efficacy was also confirmed in the rabbit model. Therefore, it had been proposed that Chebulinic Acid can be used as a potential candidate to develop an oral male contraceptive. This pure Compound of Terminalia Chebula was also explored to check it‘s efficacy for the management of Benign Prostate Hyperplasia (BPH) in the elderly men. As the marketed drugs of BPH show some anti-spermatogenic activity; hence chebulinic Acid was also tested to observe it‘s therapeutic efficacy for BPH in the rat model. This study is unique in terms of developing a male contraceptive from a pure compound of a known natural product. At the sae time, targeting the management of BPH with minimal or no side effects as it was evident from the toxicological studies.