ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Estrogens has traditionally been known as the female hormone, but this idea has been challenged in early 1990’s and an essential physiological role for estrogen in male fertility was identified. Phytoestrogens are naturally occurring non-steroidal plant chemicals that can act like the female hormone estrogen. The herbs ( anise alfalfa and vervain ) chosen in this study contain phytoestrogens. OBJECTIVE: Previous studies demonstrated controversy of the effects of phytoestrogens on the rat testes .Hence, the present investigation was undertaken to investigate the influence of typical dose of herbs containing phytoestrogen on the rat testis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-four apparently normal mature male rats were divided into four groups of 6 animals each. The first "control" group received only 4ml of distilled water as a placebo. The second group received 40mg/kg of anise seed; the third group received 53.3 mg/kg of dried herb of vervain and the fourth group received 400 mg /kg of alfalfa seeds. All experimental groups received the doses through orogastric tube daily for fourteen days. Testicular histology was evaluated by light and enzyme histochemistry. Plasma FSH and testosterone concentrations were taken to support our results. RESULTS: Histological examination of anise, alfalfa and vervain – treated groups showed an increase in the height of germinal epithelia. There was marked lipoprotein lipase activity in the whole of the interstitial tissue which is more in amount in experimental groups than that in control group. Acid phosphatase granules were infiltered the seminiferous epithelia mildly in control group , moderately in anise and vervain groups and markedly in alfalfa group. The number of interstitial cells showing marked acid phosphatase activity was higher in all experimental groups than that in control group. Alkaline phosphatase exhibited intense activity in the boundary tissue of the seminiferous tubules in testes of control and experimental groups but it appeared thicker in the latter. CONCLUSION: The low dose and short duration of treatment used in our study made these phytoestrogen – containing herbs to have a stimulatory effect on leydig cell steroidogenesis. This study also demonstrated that aniseed being the most potent of the three herbs followed by alfalfa in stimulating testosterone synthesis. This is possibly attributed to the coumarin constituent of aniseed and alfalfa. KEY WORDS: phytoestrogen-containing herbs, testis, acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase, lipoprotein lipase
In this paper we proposed the method of X-ray fluorescence (XRF) determination of some essential trace elements in medicinal herbs and vitamin-mineral complexes at the level of 100-101 mg/ml. To increase sensitivity and selectivity of the determination we simple and effective approach based on the extraction of metal ions from aqueous solutions with chemically modified polyurethane foam sorbents followed by direct XRF analysis. The conditions of sorption preconcentration of Co(II), Ni(II) and Zn(II) ions with modified sorbents were optimized. The proposed approach is used for the determination of trace elements in several kinds of medicinal herbs (coltsfoot leaves, nettle leaves and yarrow herb) and vitamin-mineral
... Show MoreThe aims of study were identify the Morphological description and histological structure of pancreas gland in the Saw-scaled viper snake, (Echis carinatus scochureki). The study was conducted on 6 snakes collected from the city of Nasiriya in Dhi Qar province, Doped snakes was dissected to isolate the pancreas gland, and the histological slides prepared after samples fixation by fixative solutions, the routine stains Haematoxylin– Eosin were used. Morphological Description study showed that the pancreas gland was compact in type with one lobe, white-pink in colure. The pancreas Located at the level of the Gall bladder associated with it’s caudal side, The spleen is adjacent to pancreas completely in the dorsal side .and duodenum l
... Show MoreThe morphological and histological aspects of fore brain (Cerebrum) in quail (Coturnix coturnix) have been investigated, results of the present study revealed that the cerebrum in quail is large size triangular shape, its surface contains folds of shallow grooves. Microscopical examination declears that cerebrum consists of two regions, the first represents pallium which includes the external corticoid area which consist of hyperpallium and the dorsolateral corticoid area, it consists of piriform cortex and hippocampal complex. The second region is the internal corticoid areas dorsal ventricular ridge which contains the mesopallium, nidopallium and archopallium. he large size pyramidal neurons appeared in the nidopall
... Show MoreThe study current included histological structure of stomach of Liza abu , anatomical results found that stomach represent the expander non-convoluted part of gastrointestinal tract it is located between the end of the esophagus and the beginning of the intestine , the average length of stomach was (1.5) cm , composed of two parts : cardiac stomach which is represent the anterior part and be thin- walled , the other part was pyloric stomach or gizzard and the walls were thick . The internal surface of cardiac and pyloric stomach contain longitudinal folds numbering (7), folds branching to finger shape structures extend inside the lumen . Histological study showed that stomach wall composed of three main histological layers : mucos
... Show MoreThe study includes histological structure of digestive tract of Liza abu , Anatomical results found that the digestive tract occupied the largest part of abdominal cavity , the mean gut length was (45.5) cm and relative gut length was (2.9) . esophagus was a muscular tube length (1.5) cm , esophagus wall containing longitudinal straight unbranched folds numbering (9) . Histological study results found that the esophagus composed of four tunica : mucosa , submucosa , muscularis and serosa . The results found that the mucosa consists of three layers : epithelium , lamina propria and muscularis mucosa . The epithelial layer was stratified squamous epithelium thickness (139.1) µ containing
... Show MoreThe histological structure of Pycnonotus leucotis was investigated to fill the dearth of information on the histology of mid-brain from available literature and help understand its brain. The brain is wide and short and its length 1.5 cm, and it consists of three regions. The middle region is the mesencephalon. The mesencephalon was divided into optic tectum and tegmentum. The optic tectum consists of six main layers, while the tegmentum contains nuclei of cranial nerves.
The study includes histological structure of pyloric caeca , intestine and rectum of Liza abu , the results show that the pyloric caeca are non-branched fingerlings structures numbering (4) and length rate was (0.5) cm , while the intestine of Liza abu was long narrow tube composed of a number of laps , the anterior part of intestine was wider in diameter than the posterior part , the length of intestine was (32) cm , the rectum was straight tube extends from the end of posterior part of intestine to the anus. The wall of pyloric caeca , intestine and rectum consists of main layers : mucosa , submucosa , muscularis and serosa , lining epithelium of pyloric caeca , intestin
... Show MoreLeukemia or cancer of the blood is the most common childhood cancer, Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), is the most common form of leukemia that occurs in children. It is characterized by the presence of too many immature white blood cells in the child’s blood and bone marrow, Acute lymphoblastic leukemia can occur in adults too, treatment is different for children. Children with ALL develop symptoms related to infiltration of blasts in the bone marrow, lymphoid system, and extramedullary sites, such as the central nervous system (CNS). Common constitutional indications consist of fatigue (50%), pallor (25%), fever (60%), and weight loss (26%). Infiltration of blast cells in the marrow cavity and periosteum often lead to bone
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