Does Nature Know Best?

Despite the success of a variety of artificial contraceptives, including "the pills," some medical investigators cling wistfully to the idea that somewhere in the animal or vegetable kingdom there must be an antifertility agent that would be "more natural." Their belief has rested on weak reeds: on every continent, among people of all races, there are numerous old wives' tales to the effect that a particular plant, if its leaves are chewed at the full of the moon or some other arbitrary time, can be counted on to prevent conception.

Both drug companies and academic research institutes have recently spent fortunes trying to isolate a contraceptive on the "nature knows best" reasoning, and they have failed dismally. The truth is that countless plants contain substances that are close chemical kin to the estrogen group of female hormones and, like the estrogens, will indeed prevent conception--but they are neither as good nor as safe as the artificial products now available.

Australian scientists got on the trail because of infertility in sheep: it turned out that the barren ewes were browsing on estrogenic plants. In India, Dr. Sudhir Nath Sanyal thought he had found just what the subcontinent needs in an extract from the common pea, Pisum sativum, but his results have not been confirmed. Some Europeans and the American Shoshone Indians swear by an extract from a species of gromwell or stoneseed (Lithospermum), but scientists have not been able to find the magic in it--if there is any.

Still the search goes on. Last week Ohio University's Dr. Henry Vallowe attracted attention with a report that he had extracted a potent antifertility agent from a common weed. He has used the stuff so far only on rats, a procedure that is far from a demonstration that a drug is suitable for humans. Dr. Vallowe refused to identify his weed, though drug companies tried to persuade him to do so. What he did say was that in his rats the compound did not work, as estrogens do, by suppressing ovulation. If this is correct, he may be a bit closer to proving that nature does know best.

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