Comment · Wed, March 1, 2017 · Ceretropic & Nootropics Depot
[Full text] The crude extract from the root of Polygala Tenuifolia Willd could immobilize and kill 100% spermatozoa within 20 s in vitro.
Original post in this thread
tronatula · 13 points
The title is cited from this study: Effects of the crude extract of Polygala tenuifolia Willd on human sperm in vitro
So, is Polygala Tenuifolia bad for fertility?
What they were answering
tronatula · 1 points
If it's the case, why they study the effect in vitro, what's the point?
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic & Nootropics Depot
Possibly to find if there were other novel uses of traditional Chinese extracts. It could be useful as a natural spermicide. That does not mean it has any effect on sperm after oral supplementation, though.
Also, the culture right now is a very much "publish or perish" mentality. So people study things that will give them a result, so they can publish papers for the sake of doing it. It's also why you don't see papers being published with null results. It's a big problem right now in the scientific community.
Publish or perish: Where are we heading?
You can see in the study you linked that they screened over 300 traditional Chinese extracts for spermicidal actions.
In this study, we screened more than 300 Chinese medicinal herbs such as Platycodon grandiflorum, Herba taraxaci, Flos lonicerae japonicae, and Radix paeoniae rubra, and found that the crude extracts from the roots of Polygala tenuifolia Willd (PTW) and Platycodon grandiflorum had strong sperm immobilizing activity in vitro.
So they used an inexpensive method to assess if they could find some extracts that were spermicidal in vitro. They showed that the DNA was not damaged, though. It was only a disruption in the membranes of the sperm that came into direct contact with the polygala extract. So it's not like it's damaging the DNA of the sperm. It's just directly affecting their membrane stability. Interesting, but not a concern for oral supplementation.