Effects of Danae racemosa on Spermatogenesis in Rat

Background: danae racemosa is used medicinally and as a culinary spice. its constituents arestated to have antithrombotic, antihepatotoxic, antinociceptive and antioxidant.objective: enhanced oxidative stress and changes in antioxidant capacity are considered to playan important role in the pathogenesis of chronic diabetes mellitus.methods: wistar male rat (n=30) were allocated into three groups, control (n=10) and two testgroups (each of ten). animals in test groups were subdivided into groups of 2 that received freshextract equivalent to 200 & 400 mg/kg/rat/day danae racemosa extract. fresh danae racemosaextract was administered with gavages for 28 consecutive days. animals were kept in standardcondition. on twenty eighth day, the testes of rats in the all groups were removed and sperm wascollected from epididymis and was prepared for analysis.results: the percentage of sperm viability and motility in both test groups significantlyincreased (p<0.05), but the sperm concentration significantly increased only in the group thatreceived the high dose of danae racemosa extracted, (p<0.05). it was evident that there was nodifference on sperm morphology and testis weight in test groups comparing to control group.conclusion: in our study danae racemosa extract has significantly affected the sperm numberand percentage of viability and motility; it seems that using 400 mg/kg/rat/day of danaeracemosa extract is effective in sperm health parameters.