Aloe vera extract could work as a contraceptive

A CHEMICAL found in aloe vera could offer hope to millions of women who struggle with the side effects of the Pill.

The molecule luperol has been found to block a key step in fertilisation.

Scientists believe that extracts from aloe vera could provide the basis of a new kind of non-hormonal “molecular condom” which could be taken before or after sex to prevent conception. In the folk medicine tradition, aloe vera was thought to prevent unwanted pregnancies, as well as having other beneficial effects.

Scientists in the US identified two molecules – lupeol from aloe vera and pristimerin from the thunder god vine – that in laboratory tests prevented sperm breaking through a protective “wall” of cells surrounding the egg.

The chemicals could serve as an emergency contraceptive or as a permanent method of birth control via a skin patch or vaginal ring.

The US lead scientist, Dr Polina Lishko, from the University of California at Berkeley, said: “Because these two plant compounds block fertilisation at very, very low concentrations they could be a new generation of emergency contraceptive we nicknamed ‘molecular condoms’.” The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.