Study the Effect of Ferula hermonis Extract on the Fertility in Male Mice

  The present study was designed to detect the impact of fertility, histopathalogical and the cytotoxicity effect of ferula hermonis extract on male albino mice. To study the effect of F. hermonis, methanolic roots extract was prepared and chemical detection of flavonoids, alkaloids, tannins, saponins, terpenes and steroids was carried out. The Thin Layer Chromatography analysis of methanolic extract showed that ferutinine was present based on RF value. The effect of methanolic extract included an assays on the sperm functions including concentration of sperms in semen fluid, percentage of morphologically abnormal sperms and also included an assay testosterone concentration in serum and also study histopathological effect of the extract on liver, kidney and testis. The mice
were distributed into eight groups, Group1(negative control): mice treated with water, Group2 (negative control): mice treated with 1ml methanol, Group3 (negative control): mice treated with 1ml dimethyl sulphaoxide, Group4 (positive control): mice treated with 500mg/kg vitamin C and vitamin E, Group5: mice treated with 0.45 mg/ ml of extract (25mg/kg), Group 6: mice treated with 0.9 mg/ ml of extract (50 mg/kg), Group7: mice treated with 1.8 mg/ml of extract (100 mg/kg) and Group8: mice treated with 9 mg/ml of extract (500 mg/kg). This extract was administered orally for 10 days. The results showed that a significant increase ( p ≤ 0.05) in sperm concentration after treatment with plant extract at doses 25 and 50 mg/kg when compared with controls and also when compared with other groups treatment with extract at doses100 and 500 mg/kg. Testosterone concentration was a significantly ( p ≤ 0.05) increased in serum within 2 hours in mice treated with F. hermonis extract
compared with negative and positive controls-treated mice. Serum testosterone in mice treated with 25 and 50 mg/kg were acutely elevated when compared with controls-treated mice and also when compared with other groups treated with extract at doses 100 and 500 mg/kg, while testosterone concentration was a significantly increase ( p ≤ 0.06) in serum after 10 days in mice treated with plant extract compared with negative and positive controls-treated mice. Morphological analysis of sperms is an important aspect in the assessment of sperm functions. Results revealed that a significant decrease ( p ≤ 0.05) in percentage of morphologically abnormal sperms after treatment with plant extract at doses 25 and 50 mg/kg when compared with controls, and also when compared with other groups treated with the extract at doses 100 and 500 mg/kg. Different histopathological changes were observed in liver, kidney and testes in mice treated with plant extract. Liver and kidney at doses 25
and 50 mg/kg showing the presence of the normal appearance, while at doses 100 and 500 mg/kg showing the presence of  degenerative change and necrosis. In  testis, at 25 and 50 mg/kg showing the presence of normal appearance of a seminferous tubules lumen, spermatogonia, sperms, seminferous tubules and increased in leydig cells, while at 100 and 500 mg/kg showing the presence of a reduction in the number of leydig cells, disintegration within the intra-tissue and vascular congestion and necrosis occurs in germ cell layers. The cytotoxic activity of the plant roots extract was determined by evaluating its effect on growth of HepG2 cells line after incubation for 72 hours with different concentrations of extract (800, 400, 200, 100, 50, 25, 12.5, 6.2 mg/ml). The results showed
that a significant decrease of HepG2 cells viability, and this decrease in cells viability is increased with the increasing the extract concentrations in comparison with the negative control, and the growth inhibition percentage reach to (78.3%).