Abstract

Objective: To investigate the effect of the ethanolic extract of leaves of Solanum trilobatum (EEST) on spermatogenesis in male Sprague Dawley (SD) rats.
Method: The powdered leaves were weighed and packed in a Soxhlet apparatus and extracted with ethanol. Healthy, adult male SD rats were used for the study. The animals were divided into five groups with six animals each. All the animals were administered with respective assigned treatment once daily for 28 days. Treatments given for the five separate groups were control, vitamin C (200 mg/kg), EEST (100 mg/kg), EEST (200 mg/kg), and EEST (400 mg/kg). Later, the rats were subjected to bilateral orchiectomy; sperm was collected from the cauda epididymis and used for sperm count and sperm motility analysis. The organs such as liver, kidney and testis were harvested; absolute organ weights were measured, and relative organ weights were calculated.
Result: The rats administered with EEST did not show a significant increase in body weight. The rats administered with EEST showed no significant changes in the weight of the left and right testis, weight of epididymal caput, weight of epididymal cauda, sperm count from the rats, and percentage of sperm viability. Male rats administered with EEST did not show any significant changes in spermatogenesis according to the data collected in this study.
Conclusion: Male rats administered with EEST did not show any significant changes in spermatogenesis at the dose levels of 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg.

Key words: Fertility, Sperm count, Sperm motility, Vitamin C