Evaluation of the effect of ethanol leaf extract of Vernonia amygdalina on the Testicle of Diabetic Wistar Rats

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of ethanol leaf extract of V. amygdalina on the testicle of alloxan induced diabetic wistar rats. Freshly harvested leaves of V. amygdalina was washed with clean tap water and subsequently dried at room temperature prior to being ground to fine powder. Twenty (20) adult male wistar rats were divided into four (4) groups of five (5) rats per group. · Group I was the normal control and was fed rat chow and water · Group II was induced diabetes without treatment, while · Groups III and IV were diabetic rats administered with 100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg bw of V. amygdalina extract respectively. Sperm morphology, motility and count evaluated indicated that the aforementioned parameters were significantly (P<0.05) low in diabetic rats which were not treated but however improved in a dose dependent manner to values which though were significantly (P<0.05) lower than that of the normal control. In conclusion, this study shows that extract of V. amygdalina can ameliorate damage imposed on the testicle by diabetes mellitus.