Plants used for illegal abortions in Tanzania can stop postpartum bleedings

Washington, Danish researchers have found that a number of plants, which are used for illegal abortions in Tanzania, can make the uterus tissue contract and therefore stop lethal bleedings after birth.

This new knowledge discovered by the researchers at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, is now to be conveyed in rural Tanzania where access to medicine often is difficult.

Every year around 350,000 women die globally due to postpartum bleedings - blood loss during childbirth.

On the African continent, one in 16 women die during their pregnancy and in some countries the number is as high as every eighth woman.

The reason is poor access to medical assistance often because the women either lack money or because they live far away.

The knowledge about herbs, which can help the uterus contract after childbirth, is therefore often the only life saving opportunity in remote rural areas.

The Danish researchers have therefore tested 22 abort inducing plants in the lab on rat tissue, and several of the plants had close to the same effect as the control drug acetylcholin.

Half of the plants we tested made the uterus tissue contract strongly whereas 11 of the extracts induced contractions with short intervals. Seven of the plants worked in both ways, explains Associate Professor Anna K. Jager from the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen.