International Journal of Pharmacognosy

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On the Contraceptive Effect of Castor Beans

A S Salhab, A A Issa & I Alhougog

To cite this article: A S Salhab, A A Issa & I Alhougog (1997) On the Contraceptive Effect
of Castor Beans, International Journal of Pharmacognosy, 35:1, 63-65, DOI: 10.1076/
phbi.35.1.63.13268

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1076/phbi.35.1.63.13268

Published online: 29 Sep 2008.

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International Journal of Pharmacognosy
1997, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 63–65
ON THE CONTRACEPTIVE EFFECT OF CASTOR BEANS
A.S. Salhab1*, A.A. Issa2 and I. Alhougog3
Departments of Pharmacology1 and Obstetrics and Gynecology2,
Faculty of Medicine, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
3Ministry of Education, Albaha, Saudi Arabia
ABSTRACT
Castor beans (Ricinus communis L., Euphorbiaceae) have
been used traditionally by women in many countries for
birth control. In order to verify the contraceptive effect of
castor beans, adult female rabbits were treated orally with
chunks of castor beans at the level of 7.5 mg/kg body
weight daily for at least ten consecutive days. Mating with
proven male rabbits was allowed after the last treatment.
Treated and untreated (control) female rabbits were in-
spected for pregnancy, body weight, and any apparent
side effects. The treatment resulted in a 4.3 fold decrease
in pregnancy of treated female rabbits compared to the
untreated control group. All treated female rabbits expe-
rienced transient mild diarrhea and loss of body weight.
The inhibitory effect of castor beans on pregnancy was
reversible. This observation was detected by remating four
females who were treated with castor beans previously.
Three of these rabbits became pregnant and delivered at
term (after 32 days), whereas the fourth rabbit experi-
enced midgestation abortion (day 16 of pregnancy). These
results suggest a reversible contraceptive effect of castor
bean in female rabbits.
INTRODUCTION
The castor bean plant (Ricinus communis L., Eu-
phorbiaceae) is a herbaceous annual plant that is cul-
tivated in climate areas of the world. The plant is a
large shrub which can attain a height of 12 ft, and
has large palmate leaves. The smooth seed is mot-
Keywords: Castor bean, contraceptive effect, folk medi-
cine, female rabbits, midgestation abortion, diarrhea.
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
0925-1618/97/3501-0063$12.00
© Swets & Zeitlinger
tled greyish and brown, but it varies considerably in
color (Tyler et al., 1988). Castor beans contain ricin,
a potent toxalbumin that interferes with protein syn-
thesis and is one of the most toxic substances known
(Osborn, 1905; Rumack, 1989).
People in many parts of the world ingest castor
beans as a cathartic, an emetic, a treatment for lepro-
sy and a cure for syphilis (Scarpa and Guerci, 1982).
With regard to contraceptives uses of castor beans,
it has been reported that some women in India and
Korea have taken castor beans to prevent subsequent
pregnancy (Mahli and Trivedi, 1972; Farnsworth et
al., 1975; Woc et al., 1981). In Algiers, women used
to dip castor beans in the warm blood of a rabbit
before ingesting the beans to prevent pregnancy (Bron-
degaard, 1973). In Egypt it has been reported that
there will be no pregnancy for at least nine months if
a woman takes one castor seed after the child is born
(Mahli and Trivedi, 1972).
The objective of this work was to investigate the
effect of castor beans on the pregnancy of rabbits.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Rabbit Experiments
One kilogram of castor beans was bought from a
local market in Al-Taif city, Saudi Arabia. The beans
were identified as the seeds of the plant Ricinnus
communnis L. by Professor Barakat A. Abu-Irmaileh
of the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of
Jordan. Adult male and female rabbits were either
mixed breed colony reared at the animal facility of
the Faculty of Medicine, University of Jordan, or a
64 A.S. SALHAB ET AL.
New Zealand strain puchased from a local farm in
Gainesville and housed in the animal facility of the
Medical School, University of Florida. A group of
adult female rabbits, was treated each orally with
approximately 7.5 mg/kg body weight daily for ten
consecutive days. Mating with proven male rabbits
was allowed after the last treatment. Two hours lat-
er, vaginal smears were obtained and sperms were
observed under light microscope. Another group of
female rabbits, not treated with castor beans, served
as control. After mating female rabbits were housed
individually and provided with feed and water ad
libitum. Rabbits were inspected daily for apparent
side effects and their body weight was recorded week-
ly for four weeks or till delivery.
RESULTS
The Effect of Castor Beans on Female Rabbits
Since the LD50 of castor beans in adult female rab-
bits is not reported, several attempts were carried
out to establish a dosing protocol which would pro-
duce no fatality among female rabbits. It was found
in a pilot study that an oral dose of 30 to 50 mg/kg
body weight killed 7 out of 10 female rabbits within
48 h (results are not shown). We also found that 7.5
mg/kg body weight resulted in few apparent side
effects in female rabbits such as diarrhea and loss of
body weight but no death was observed. Therefore,
this dose was adopted for treatment throughout this
study. Table 1 shows that castor bean treatment ex-
hibited a decrease in pregnancy rate of female rab-
bits. Out of 21 treated animals only 4 (19%) became
pregnant. Meanwhile, out of 21 controls 17 females
developed pregnancy. Therefore, castor bean treat-
ment resulted in a 4.2 fold inhibition of pregnancy in
the treated females compared to control. This result
lends support to the folk use of castor beans as a
contraceptive agent.
Table 1. The effect of castor bean treatment on the pregnancy of female rabbits.
Animal group Number of females Pregnant females
Treated rabbis 21
Untreated rabbits 21
(control)
In order to investigate the reversibility of the con-
traceptive effects of castor bean, a group of four
nonpregnant rabbits were remated again after pass-
ing their pregnancy term (32 days after sperm detec-
tion). All four female rabbits became pregnant. Three
rabbits delivered at term and one female rabbit ex-
perienced a midgestation abortion on day 16 of preg-
nancy. This finding suggests that the inhibitory ef-
fects of pregnancy exhibited by castor beans are
reversible.
Other Effects of Castor Beans
Most of the treated female rabbits suffered from mild
diarrhea (results are not shown) which disappeared a
few days after initiating treatment. Also, treated fe-
male rabbits experienced loss of body weight.
DISCUSSION
Although the use of castor beans as contraceptive in
women has been reported, the scientific confirma-
tion of such practice is not yet available. It is worth
mentioning that the human cases of this use requires
different dosages of castor beans (anywhere from
one to five beans) at different occasion (after deliv-
ery or at different days of the menstrual cycle). With
such variability in castor bean use and the lack of
detailed scientific study, one cannot be sure or even
speculate on their mechanism of action.
In this study 17 rabbit females out of 21 (81%)
who received treatment failed to become pregnant.
Meanwhile 81% of the control group exhibited preg-
nancy. This decrease in pregnancy was in agreement
with the reported results of Dafallah and Al-Mutairy
(1994).
It is known that castor seeds contain from 45 to
55% fixed oil, which is known to cause diarrhea
(also observed in this study). Also, castor beans con-
tain ricin that is composed of two polypeptide chains
Non pregnant females Pregnancy (%)
4 17 19.05
17 4 80.95
 CONTRACEPTIVE EFFECT OF CASTOR BEANS
A and B (Lamb et al., 1985). Recently we found that
the ricin A chain has a potent arbortifacient effect in
mice at midgestation (Salhab, 1996) Therefore, one
can speculate that the ricin A chain is most likely the
agent that is responsible for the inhibition of preg-
nancy in animals. Still the exact mechanism of ac-
tion and the active ingredient(s) that are responsible
for the prevention of pregnancy observed in this study
requires further investigation.
It is worth mentioning that the ingestion of castor
seeds, if thoroughly chewed, causes a burning sen-
sation in the mouth, followed by nausea, vomiting,
abdominal pain, extreme thirst and bloody diarrhea,
prostration, headache, weight loss, dullness of vi-
sion, depression, hypotension and circulatory col-
lapse. It is reported that 5 to 6 seeds were fatal to a
child and 10 to 20 seeds to an adult (Scarpa and
Guerci, 1982). In another report it is stated that 3
seeds proved fatal to an adult in 46 hr (Nayar, 1954).
In conclusion, the results of this work along with
the work of Dafallah and Al-Mutairy (1994) strong-
ly suggest the contraceptive effect of castor bean in
animals.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In part, financial support and laboratory facilities were
provided by Professor Kathleen Shiverick of the Universi-
ty of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. The authors would like
to thank Mr. Mohamad Sabber for his assistance in main-
taining the animal colony; Miss Fyrial Mubarak and Mrs.
Wafa M. Al-Shaer for their excellent assistance.
65
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Accepted: September 27, 1996