THE EFFECT OF METHANOL EXTRACT OF PUERARIA PHASEOLOIDES (KUDZU ROOT) ON THE SPERM PARAMETERS OF WISTAR RATS

The effects of oral administration of pueraria phaseoloides on the reproductive characteristics of male wistar rats for 53 days were investigated in this research. The experimental animals were randomly sorted into three groups (two test groups and one control group) of four rats each. The two test groups were orally administered 384µg/g/d and 1536µg/g/d of the crude extract of the plant (pueraria phaseoloides) respectively on a daily basis. The control group was treated like the test groups, except that they were administered with 1.75ml of normal saline daily. Compared with the control group, pueraria administration resulted in a slight decrease (P<0.05) in the mean sperm motility, mean relative testes weight and the mean testosterone concentration of the test groups throughout the experimental period. These findings suggest that pueraria phaseoloides has adverse effects on sperm parameters of male wistar rats. Pueraria phaseoloides which contain phytoestrogens that are estrogen mimicking chemicals with estrogenic activities might have altered the hormone receptor expression due to the binding affinity they have for estrogen receptors α and β and androgen receptors.