Plants of Zimbabwe used as anti-fertility agents.

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.