Fertility regulating natural products

Abstract Medicinal plants, products derived from them, and other natural products have traditionally played a significant role in human reproductive physiology and fertility regulation all over the world. Natural products-based fertility regulators have found their way into various traditional medicinal systems, including the Ayurveda, the Unani and the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Several steroidal hormones, commonly referred to a “sex hormones,” e.g., estrogen and testosterone, are of animal origins, albeit later synthesized in the laboratory. Most of the commercially available synthetic fertility regulators have adverse effects, and because of that, emphasis has now been given to develop biologically active natural products, especially from plant origin, as an alternative to synthetic hormone based regulators. The main coverage of this chapter is on plant-derived natural products that can regulate fertility. A total of 44 natural products and their activities, proven by in vitro and in vivo studies, are presented in this chapter. The chapter also briefly describes the natural products that are currently undergoing clinical trials for the development of new herbal fertility regulators.