Forty-two New Zealand White male rabbits were housed individually in wire cages and randomly distributed among six experimental groups of seven rabbits each, during 16 to 61 weeks of age. There were three main nitrate groups: 0 (tap water), 350 and 700 ppm. Within the 700 ppm of nitrate, there were four subgroups, in which one group was used as control group and the other three groups were supplemented with either 200 ppm of ascorbic acid (vitamin (Vit) C), 200 ppm of Vit E with 0.2 ppm of selenium (Se) and 1000 ppm of probiotic. The nitrate was supplemented as a sodium nitrate. The aim is to test the ability of Vit C and Vit E, Se and probiotic on the deleterious effects (blood and seminal plasma biochemical constituents, semen quality and productive performance) of nitrate in drinking water. Rabbits given nitrate at 700 ppm had significantly lower plasma globulin, red blood cells (RBCs), hemoglobin (Hgb), packed cell volume % (PCV%) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) than those given the other concentrations of nitrate. Vit C, Vit E with Se and probiotic resulted in significantly (P , 0.05) greater Hgb, RBCs, PCV% and TAC than those of bucks given water supplemented with only 700 ppm nitrate, but the aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase concentrations in seminal plasma were lower. Testosterone in the blood plasma and the seminal plasma was significantly (P , 0.05) lower in rabbits given 700 ppm nitrate than in those given other concentrations of nitrate. Vit C, Vit E with Se and the probiotic significantly increased testosterone, fertility, number of offspring and total offspring weight of rabbits sired by bucks supplemented with 700 ppm of nitrate.

The study was undertaken in the animal house belonging to the Animal Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University. Twenty four adult male albino rats with an average live body weight of 130 gm were allocated to 4 equal groups (6 rats each): group 1 (G1) served as the control group and was orally given 1 ml of distilled water, group 2 (G2) was orally given 1 ml Cymbopogon proximus (CP, halfa barr) suspension, group 3 (G3) was orally given 1 ml Ammi visnaga (AV, Khella) suspension and group 4 (G4) was orally given administrated 1 ml Ambrosia maritime (AM, deamsissa) suspension. Feeding and drinking water were offered ad-libitum during the experimental period. Two experiments were carried out during hot season in summer (August and September, 2009). The first experiment was designed to investigate the effect of medicinal plants (CP, AV and AM) after 60 days from the start of the treatments on kidney function and histological structure. The second experiment was designed to test the effect of medicinal plants on diurnal variations of blood plasma parameters within each treatment at the end of the experiment. In the first experiment, blood samples were collected and kidney were studied,whereos in the second experiment, blood samples were collected in heparinized tubes three times daily from all animals within each group at 8 am, 4 pm and 12 pm.. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of using Cymbopogon proximus (Halfa barr, CP), Ammi visnaga (Khella, AV) and Ambrosia maritime (Deamsissa, AM) on kidney structure and function of albino rats. Results indicate that the kidney histopathological sections of the control and CP groups showed normal renal glomeruli and tubules. On the other renal section showed minimal degenerative changes in renal glomeruli in AV group with normal tubules and mild degenerative changes of renal glomeruli in the form of proeifuation of glomerular epithelium and mild atrophy in some glomeruli in AM group.Oral administration of medicinal plants had no significant effect on plasma creatinine, urea nitrogen, total protein, albumin, globulin, albumin /globulin, ALT, AST. Meanwhile, AV significantly increased plasma glucose to be higher than that in other groups. It could be concluded that CP is safe to be used as an effective remedy for renal spasms and diabetes treatment without any side effects on kidney function. Also, it could be recommended that AV could be used for treatment of kidney stone but the duration of treatment have to be no longer than two weeks. Meanwhile, kidney function must be considered during any treatment with AM which is mainly used for its hypoglycemic effect.

No abstract