The Use of Medicinal Herbs to Treat Male Infertility in Jordan: Evidence-Based Review
Abstract
Male infertility accounts for about 8 – 14 % of couples worldwide with high dependence on conventional and alternative medicine for treatment. Herbal medicine may be used to treat sperm-related problems, enhance libido or improve hormone levels thus; it is crucial to report the herbal medicine being used by patients in Jordan and highlight their mechanism of action. We searched available ethnopharmacological articles in Jordan where plant use for male infertility was mentioned, collect herbal plants most commonly used and match the results with the reported one in the literature. In conclusion, eight medicinal plants were mostly recorded in Jordan folk medicine for male infertility treatment. All of them were studied in other areas with a result that they can enhance male fertility except for Raphanus sativus L. which acts as an anti-fertility plant. Patients should be encouraged to have proper information about the plants being used and further local studies should be performed to confirm the beneficial effect and safety of those herbal plants.
