Herbal ‘contraceptive rings’ pique interest in Nigeria

[ABUJA, SciDev.Net] When Mutiat Ibrahim, a pharmacognosy researcher at the University of Lagos, began surveying traditional medicine practitioners across Nigeria, she was cataloguing something many in formal medicine had long dismissed: the use of herbal rings and waist beads as contraceptives.

Unplanned pregnancies are a critical public health issue in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country. The rate of unintended pregnancies ranges from 23 to 92 per cent in the most vulnerable communities, according to studies.

Ibrahim’s early findings, spanning four Nigerian states, prompted her to look further into whether plant-based ‘contraceptives’, which many rural communities rely on, are effective. These include jewellery steeped in indigenous plants believed to have contraceptive properties.

Her research, funded by the Gates Foundation and the Science for Africa Foundation, is still at the animal trial stage and has not yet reached clinical trials involving humans. But she says the initial results have been striking.

“From the preliminary studies that we have done so far, it works,” she tells SciDev.Net.

However, even if the same were true for people, Ibrahim stresses that efficacy is not the only factor. “We have to look at safety as well,” she adds.

While it’s early days, it reflects a growing interest among Nigerian scientists in a practice that has existed in local communities for generations—and that has recently found a new and far wider audience on social media.

TikTok sales

On Nigerian TikTok videos, women are sharing stories about modern contraceptive side effects including weight gain, irregular bleeding and mood swings.

In the comments beneath many of those posts, online vendors are promoting traditional rings as an alternative, to prevent pregnancy without the side effects.

The rings being sold at various prices are simple metal bands, sometimes fashioned to look like jewellery. Sellers say they are immersed in herbs for several days, a process believed to infuse them with compounds that prevent pregnancy when worn on the finger.

As such, social media has moved what was once largely shared within communities into public view, with many women now encountering the method through testimonials and online sellers.

Farida discovered the ring through friends and a TikTok advertisement in September 2025. At 10,000 Nigerian Naira (about US$7), it seemed like an answer to her worries. Her sister had experienced heavy bleeding after using an implant, while another woman she knew struggled to conceive after stopping contraceptive injections.

“The ring is very nice,” she says in a telephone conversation with SciDev.Net. “I am having my period every month, regularly and there is no heavy bleeding, unlike those ones you implant.”

Farida, who did not want to disclose her family name, says she has worn the ring continuously and has not experienced any pregnancy scares.

“The first month I was praying that it should not fail me,” she adds. “Although I was seeing positive reviews, I was still worried.” But after getting her period in the following months, that anxiety faded.

Herbal roots

Opeyemi Samuel began using the ring after giving birth in July 2024 and later started selling the products herself online. She says she prepares them using natural materials, having learnt the practice from her mother’s friend, a traditional medicine herbalist.

“I use the roots of some herbs,” she tells SciDevNet. “Everything is natural.”

Customers are instructed to wear the ring continuously and wait about eight days before having sex. Samuel says she has sold the rings to more than 100 people. She admits that the method sometimes fails, but attributes this to customers not following instructions.

“I have had four cases where the ring failed my customers,” she says.

Faith David, a naturopath trained in natural medicine, says the rings work through energy and traditional medicine—specifically, through frequencies she says interact with the body’s hormonal system.

“The frequency that inhibits progesterone in a woman is what was used or inbuilt in this ring to stop her body from producing progesterone without any single adverse side effects,” David told SciDev.Net, describing a process she calls “energy medicine powered by quantum physics”.

She says the rings can last 20 years if properly cared for and told SciDev.Net she has recorded no failures among her customers, though this could not be independently verified.

Scientists are careful to draw a line between such claims and the research currently underway. Eli Sukarime, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynaecology, says there is no scientific basis for the idea that objects can store frequencies that affect human hormones.

He compares the practice to transdermal drug delivery systems, where plant compounds absorbed into the ring material may be gradually released through the skin, to modern contraceptive patches, where hormones are gradually released through the skin.

‘Gradual release’

Ibrahim’s hypothesis centres on a more conventional mechanism. She says some practitioners embed rings or beads in herbs for about seven days and suggests that substances from the plants may be absorbed into the material and released gradually when worn.

“There’s something going into the body slowly that is actually producing that activity because that ring or the bead was being embedded in some herbal concoction,” she says.

Reproductive health specialists say it is possible that plants used in traditional preparations could contain phytoprogestins or phytoestrogens: plant-derived compounds that mimic the hormones that regulate the menstrual cycle and play key roles in pregnancy.

“There may be a correlation that those herbs have some substances like progesterone and oestrogen,” Sukarime suggests.

However, he says confirming such effects would require multidisciplinary research involving gynaecologists, botanists, pharmacologists and plant scientists.

Government research on traditional medicine

A Nigerian research institute, the Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency, has developed several traditional medicine products based on similar principles. Some of these have received approval from the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, although the contraceptive product is not among those approved.

Head of the agency Martins Emeje says researchers have applied modern pharmaceutical techniques to traditional remedies.

“At the agency, all we do is to apply modern science and technology to refining the beads and rings that our people [produce] in the village,” he told SciDev.Net.

The agency’s research explores how substances embedded in materials may be released gradually, similar to the slow-release principle used in some modern contraceptive technologies.

Some products are available through the agency’s Lagos laboratory as part of what Emeje describes as social health services offered at production cost.

Government research institutions, Emeje explains, develop and test such products and may produce them on a limited scale, while private companies are expected to handle large-scale manufacturing and commercial distribution.

Indigenous knowledge

Supporters of traditional medicine say Nigeria should invest more in studying indigenous health knowledge.

“There should be interest in it because in most cases it works and it’s somehow safer for women from my knowledge,” says, Zainab Shariff, former head of traditional complementary and alternative medicine at Nigeria’s Ministry of Health, though she stresses that scientific evidence remains limited.

“If there are plants that promote fertility, there are definitely plants to prevent pregnancy,” she adds.

For now, many women are navigating contraceptive choices in a space where traditional practices, social media influence and scientific research intersect.

From a clinical standpoint, Sukarime says contraceptive choices are usually made through counselling tailored to an individual’s medical history and needs.

Emeje, also a professor of drug delivery and nanomedicine, says the conversation should not frame traditional and modern medicine as opposing approaches.

“Traditional medicine and allopathic medicine are not in competition,” he says. “They have their areas of strength and weakness.”

Rather than replacing one another, he suggests the two can exist side by side, allowing people to decide which kind of care they trust.

This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.