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Mexican plants and human fertility.


 Synthetic steroids are obtainable cheaply and in abundance from sapogenins, substances originating from plants of the Discorea family. Some 40 years ago, Russell Marker, an American chemist, discovered this source, which grows abundantly in Mexican jungles and is now exploited and cultivated commercially. Today synthetic steroids prepared from extracts from a wide range of vegetable sources are used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, allergies, inflammatory diseases, sterility, and various heart conditions, and form the basis of modern oral contraceptives. Nevertheless, oral contraceptives in current use are still fairly costly, and women have to be educated in their use. What is needed urgently is a cheaper contraceptive pill with a long-term effect, and research is continuing. For example, scientists from the People's Republic of China have reported significant anti-fertility effects associated with 2 substances, anordin and dinordin, prepared with steroids derived from the sisal plants Agave sisilana and Agave americana. These agents, whose anti-fertility properties have been confirmed by scientists in Sweden and the United States, constitute a new family of contraceptives with the great advantage of having to be taken only once or twice instead of 20 times per month necessary with the ordinary pill. Also from China, scientists have reported the effectiveness of gossypol as an orally administered male contraceptive, although gossypol is not a steroid. It may become, however, a leading candidate for a male contraceptive.
