One interesting thing about bitter kola is that you can use it as contraceptive.
Not many women know this. Basically, it is one of the safest and it gives peaceful results too.
Bitter kola is one of the wonderful contraceptives that have been discovered by humans in the quest for natural plants that could help in family planning.
Unfortunately, people focus on eating bitter kola is as a stimulant.
However, traditional African medicinal uses of bitter kola include, treatment of cough, purgative, anti-parasitic and anti-microbial.
Also, you could eat the seed for the treatment of diarrhoea, bronchitis, throat infections and liver disorders.
Furthermore, the seed, Garcinia kola, enjoys a folk reputation in Africa as a poison antidote. And here lies the power of this seed to also cleans the reproductive system.
Bitter Kola And Male Fertility
Indeed, men have widely used it to boost libido, with some studies supporting this claim. Although, this boosting happens at moderate levels of consumption.
Note also that there are evidences that it could affect male fertility.
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According to a study, bitter kola seed produced decreased serum testosterone levels, decreased semen counts, decreased semen motility, all these effects were duration dependent and were reversible (1).
This says that when a man eats it beyond what is necessary just because he wants to boost libido, bad things could happen.
So, for a man, it is not okay to eat more than one seed in days. Remember that it takes time to digest and could have effect in your body for days or weeks.
Bitter Kola And Women Fertility
A study highlights the power of bitter kola as contraceptive. While the study says the effect of bitter kola as contraceptive is dose dependent, it is effective even at 100mg/kg (2).
The research findings read: “It was observed that there was no ovulation in 30% in animals pretreated with 100mg/kg,
while there was no ovulation in all animals pretreated with 200mg/kg-300mg/kg of extract, indicating 100% inhibition”.
The study concluded that bitter kola seed possesses anti-ovulatory, anti-progestational and anti-implantation effects.
This supports its traditional use of bitter kola as contraceptive.
Bottom Line
Therefore, as a woman, before you eat bitter kola, you should consider a few things.
Are you near your ovulation? Do you want to ensure that pregnancy does not occur? Are you trying to conceive?
For a woman who is trying to conceive, eating bitter kola two to three days before period flow could be helpful.
It will help in the cleaning of the uterus and prepare it for ovulation which usually happens in less than two weeks from the day of your first spotting of period flow.
One way to use is to dice the bitter kola, add it into apple cider vinegar and take shorts of it after it has infused.
You can also chew the bitter kola after removing the covering brown skin.
It is therefore important that you should eat bitter kola at the right time to get the right result.