Scientists have developed a male birth control pill which they claim is 99 per cent effective and has few side effects.
The pill, derived from an Indonesian shrub, apparently allows men to produce sperm that cannot get women pregnant.
It is made from the gendarussa plant, which has long been used by tribesmen on the island of Papua to prevent their wives from conceiving.
Scientists have developed a pill, derived from an Indonesian shrub, which they claim will render sperm incapable of getting a woman pregnant - with a 99 per cent efficacy rate
Professor Bambang Prajogo, of Airlangga University, developed the pill after hearing rumours of these effects, and bringing the gendarussa plant to his lab for study in 1985.
He has carried out 30 years of research, isolating the active ingredient, putting it into a tablet form, and carrying out clinical trials to prove its contraceptive effects, Global Post reports.
He says the plant’s active ingredient disrupts three key enzymes in sperm, weakening them and making them unable to penetrate the eggs during the fertilization process.
This would not interfere with the quantity or quality of sperm produced because it only targets the enzymes, he told the Jakarta Post.
Professor Prajogo is currently working on the dosage, but hopes to create a formula meaning men would take the pill an hour before sex.
Small clinical trials, the largest studying 350 men, found it to be 99 per cent effective.
They also found male fertility returned to normal within a month of taking the pill.
However some men gained weight on the pill, Professor Prajogo told the Global Post.
WHAT IS THE GENDARUSSA PLANT?
The gendarussa plant, is a small branched shrub found in China, Malaysia, India, the Phillipines and Indonesia.
In 1985, Indonesian researchers began to look into its effect as a contraceptive.
They heard anecdotal evidence that men belonging to a certain tribe in Papua were using it as a contraceptive, Coconuts Jakarta reports.
The tribesmen would boil the leaves in water and then drink the water 30 minutes before having sex.
It is said to have been a 'godsend' for the tribesmen. In their culture, they were not allowed to get their wives pregnant until after they had fully paid off their dowries.
Professor Prajogo, of Airlangga University, has been studying the contraceptive effects of gendarussa for nearly three decades.
He says the plant’s active ingredient disrupts three key enzymes in sperm, making them unable to penetrate the eggs during the fertilization process.
And at least one participant saw an increase in two enzymes that indicate poor heart or liver functioning, although it was unclear whether this was due to the pill or another health issue, he said.
But overall, researchers found no obvious side effects, and 'certainly none that rival those associated with female hormone-based contraceptive pills'.
Hormonal birth control has been linked with a raised risk of heart attack, strokes and blood clots, as well as nausea and bleeding.
However previous research has found one of the biggest barriers to a male birth control pill comes from the attitudes of women – who don’t trust their partners with the responsibility of taking it.
In 2011, a survey by Anglia Ruskin University found that half of women would not rely on a male pill as contraception – because they did not trust their partners to remember to take it.
Now, the Indonesian medicines regulatory body wants a bigger trial to verify the findings.
Indeed, such a trial would need to be carried out for the pill to be marketed in Europe or the U.S.
But global pharmaceutical companies are already showing an interest in the pill.
Professor Bambang said he has already turned down an offer of billions of funding from a major U.S. pharmaceutical firm, who wanted to buy his patent, which is owned by the University.
Now, he says the pill will hit the shelves by 2016, although regulations mean it may take up to a decade longer to be sold in Europe and the U.S.
The news comes after the Parsemus Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation based in the U.S., announced its trials of a new birth control injection were proving promising.
The injection, called Vasalgel, is injected into the vas deferens - the tube that sperm passes through on the way to the penis.
The gel acts to block sperm, thus preventing pregnancy.
Developers hope it will be cheap, reversible and long-lasting, and hope to make it available within three years.
Similarly, last year Australian researchers said they had made a scientific breakthrough that could make a male contraceptive pill reality.
Their technique worked like a temporary vasectomy, stopping sperm leaving the body during sex.
This works by blocking two proteins involved in the ejaculation process.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2860712/Would-trust-partner-male-contraceptive-pill-Scientists-claim-developed-male-birth-control-99-effective.html#ixzz3KwiXskd5
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
