Onions are natural anti-clotting agents due to their sulfur content, and research has shown onion bulbs to have antifertility, estrogenic, prostaglandin inhibitory, and uterine contracting effects. Dried red onion bulb skin, at a concentration of 20% drinking water, injected into the abdomen was found to have abortive effects on pregnant mice.[337] The water extract of the fresh onion bulb, in cell culture, actively inhibited prostaglandins on platelets and rat aorta.[338] In one study, the water extract of the onion bulb produced strong uterine contracting effects in pregnant mice and rats.[339] In another study, the fresh bulb juice was found to have an active uterine stimulating effect on the rat uterus.[340]
Preparation: The onion is widely available for purchase. The most pungent onions have the most medicinal benefits, for it is said the same mechanism that causes the eyes to tear when cutting onions works to increase the fluid release from the uterus. When purchasing onions for medicinal use, avoid sweet varieties and look for unblemished firm bulbs. Sometimes onion is combined with honey, mugwort, or Asian ginger juice. When applied as an ointment to the abdomen, onion will increase urination.
Words to the Wise: Consuming large quantities of onion can lead to stomach distress and gastrointestinal irritation that may result in nausea and diarrhea. Onion is estrogenic.
Uterine Cleansing Onion Pessary*: Bake onion for one hour at 350˚F (177˚C). Cool. Baked onions left whole or mashed (as a simple or in combination) may be wrapped in cheesecloth, tied with string, and inserted. Replace pessary every eight to twelve hours for up to six days.
*This pessary, usually worn overnight while sleeping on a towel, tends to increase release of fluids cleansing the uterus and vagina. Used in the week prior to menstruation, it helps to encourage a menstrual flow. Used in the week after menstruation, it helps to clear the uterus, leading to increased fertility.
Onion Decoction: Slice three or four onions (with their skins); boil for ten minutes in one quart (1 L) of water. Filter and sip throughout the day. Decoction can be used as fumigation and douche. Strained onions can be made into a pessary.
Onion Scale Infusion: 2 oz. (50 g) onion skins to one cup (250 ml) water, simmer for ten minutes, and sip throughout the day.
Papaya
A belief in [ papaya’s] powerfully emmenagogue properties prevails amongst all classes of women in Southern India; so much so, that they assert that if a woman partake of them, even in moderate quantities, abortion will be the probable result. This popular belief is noticed in many of the reports received from India. In them, it is stated that the milky juice of the plant is applied locally to the os uteri with the view of inducing abortion.
-Dictionary of the Economic Plants of India, 1889
AKA: Papaya, pawpaw, tree melon (China), lechoza (Puerto Rico), and fruta bomba (Cuba).
Parts Used: Green (unripe) fruit, latex, seeds, and root.
Medicinal Properties: Anodyne, stomachic, carminative, anthelmintic, styptic, demulcent, abortifacient, emmenagogue, and vermifuge.
Effects on the Body: The dried latex helps to digest protein, and is used as a food supplement. The fresh latex also has uterine contracting effects.
Abortifacient Action: Seeds are believed to contain chemicals which interfere with prostaglandin production and cause contraction of the uterus. The papain in papaya latex is known to effect progesterone.
Contains: BITC (benzyl isothiocyanate) and papain.
Description: Papaya is an erect, fast growing tree with usually a single trunk, up to 20 – 30 ft. (6 – 9 m) in height. Papaya’s large leaves cluster near the top of the truck. Aromatic flowers and large green to yellow fruits often appear simultaneously under the leaves.
Papaya originated in Central and South America where it has been used for food and medicine for thousands of years. Papaya is now grown widely in tropical areas around the world where it is cultivated for its fruits and for the papain enzyme the unripe fruits contain. Papain is used as a digestive aid and meat tenderizer.
Women in many countries use papaya as a contraceptive and abortive. Papaya has gained a reputation as being the most effective and cheapest means of fertility regulation outside of clinical methods.[341] In East Africa, women drink the unripe fruit juice to induce abortion.[342] In India, unripe papaya latex[343] or the plant juice[344] is applied to the mouth of the uterus as an abortive, the seeds are considered an emmenagogue, unless eaten with ginger and honey whereby they become abortifacient,[345] and the unripe fruit is eaten including its seeds to cause abortion.[346] In South America, the Tikuna eat grated green papaya with two to six aspirin, inducing abortion in about two days.[347] In Ghana, the ground root of papaya is made into a decoction[348] or blended with salt water and used as a douche to cause abortion.[349] In Vanuatu, women eat four small unripe papayas together with four tablets Nivaquine (an anti-malarial medicine) and the juice of two limes to induce abortion.[350]
Scientific studies have suggested that papaya contains substances that have effects on the reproductive system. Although the unripe fruits are used most widely, extracts of the ripe dried fruits have also been shown to have abortifacient qualities.[351] The fruit[352] and the seed[353] have been shown to be embryotoxic. Anti-estrogenic effects have been noted as well.[354] Green papaya (unripe) can cause abortion due to the presence of a plant compound, benzyl isothiocyanate (BITC), found primarily in the latex of green papaya tissue.[355] The enzyme papain (made from latex of unripe fruit) interacts with progesterone. Crude papaya latex has been shown in laboratory studies to cause spasmodic contraction of the uterine muscles, similar to oxytocin and prostaglandin.[356]
Gathering: Papaya is endemic to the tropics. The fruits, both green and ripe, are available year round. Green (unripe) fruits can be harvested using a knife to cut the stem that attaches the fruit to the truck.
Purchasing: Papaya fruit is green when unripe and orange when ripe. In large cities around the world, Papaya fruit is available for purchase year round in both ripe and unripe forms in Asian food stores and larger supermarkets. Unripe fruits can range in size from a large orange to a cantaloupe and should be firm and unblemished. Some shopkeepers do not display unripe papaya, but will often have them boxed in storage. Papaya seeds sold for gardening are often treated with a fungicide.
337
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338
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339
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340
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341
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343
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344
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348
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353
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354
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355
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356
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