Abstract
Ethnomedicine has gained a lot of recognition in post-independence Zimbabwe and yet little research on anti-fertility medicines has been done. Information on plants used as anti-fertility medicines was obtained by interviewing women, men, traditional healers and traditional midwives in urban Harare and surrounding rural areas of Mvurwi, Seke and Chiweshe. The use of 31 species belonging to 17 families for antifertility purposes is described. This survey forms a basis to initiate a study into the efficacy and toxicology of plants used by Zimbabwean women as traditional anti-fertility medicines.
Highlights
A well developed medical system was in existence well before the advent of modern medicine in Zimbabwe
We learnt that Zimbabwean traditional antifertility methods may be classified into four broad classes: 1) Mukutura/Nyamukutura, which means, “to spill”
When one is ready to conceive, the zango is broken off reversing the contraceptive effects (Table 2). 3) Abortifacients may be used as a birth control method
Summary
A well developed medical system was in existence well before the advent of modern medicine in Zimbabwe. The use of plants for medicinal, mythical and fertility regulating purposes has been practised in Zimbabwe for centuries. The 1994 Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey reports that contraceptive use prevalence rate was 35 % for all women. 2 % of women interviewed in this survey of 1994 indicated that they used “folk” methods of contraception (Central Statistics Office, 1994). No data has been published about the folk methods of contraception in Zimbabwe. Set out to compile a list of anti-fertility medicines used by Zimbabwean women and their method of use. The survey was carried out to initiate a study into the efficacy and toxicology of plants used by Zimbabwean women as traditional anti-fertility medicines
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