The probable therupeutic effects of Dale palm pollen i male infertitit)

The probable therapeutic effects of date palm pollen in thetreatment of male infertility

Marah [, Marbeen* , AIi E. Al-Snafi**, Mossa M. Marbut *,

Ismat Y. Alla hwerdy***+Dept. of Physiology,Tikrit college of Medicine, and ** Dept. of pharmacology

,Tikrit College of Pharmacy, **+ pharmacist in Kirkuk Health Directorate

Received 2 /4 /2005 : accepted I0 /5 /2005

AbslractThis study was performed to determine the possible therapeutic eflects of Date

palm pollen in male infertility. Pollen powder was packed as 500 mg in capsules,and used for treatment of 25 infefiile men as 500 mg twice claily for 3 months. Thetreatment significantly increased serum LH,FSH and testosterone levels . It alsosignificantly increased sperm count and motility. Sexual desire was also significantlyihcreased. wives of two treated male became pregnant du'ing the treatmeit period .

Polle. of Date palm causes r.ro biochernical and hematological toxicitiei. As aconclusion it is effective, cheap, and safe therapeutic agent.

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Key words : Maie infertility,Treatment, pollen of Date palm,

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Tikrit Joumtl of Phtrnt(ceuticd Sciences 2005, l(1) :30-35

IntroductionInfertility is one of the major

health problems .Male infertility isdefined as inability of the wife toconceive after six months ofunprotected sex in the absence offemale cause(l). The causes of maleinfertility includes , deficient spermproduction, incomplete developmentof testes, testicular maldescentvascular testicular defect, diseases ofreproductive system , increase scrotaltemperature , environmental factors (such as smoking , alcohol consumptior.r

, and therapeutic agents), nutritionalfactors. immunological reacl ionsanatomical problems and ejaculatorydisorders (2-6). Semen analysis iscommonly used to determine theferlility potential in male. However,the occLrrrence of pregnancy is

multifactorial (l'2) Many treatmentapproaches are used in the treatment olmale infertility , but there are noprevious studies on the use ofpollen olDate Palm in the treatment of maleinfertility. Date Palm (Phoenixdactyliphera Linn.; Palmaceae) iswidely grown in Iraq. Stamens are thepart of date palm male flower whichproduce pollen grains. The pollen ofDate Palm had a history oluse as maletonic to improve fer-tility{7-to) .Agonadotropically active substance wasisolated from pollen of Date Palm,which when injected to mice at a doseof 10 mg produced gonadotrophinlike effects equivalent to 0.88 IU ofhuman pituitary gonadotrophin(r0)This study was designed to investigatethe probable therapeutic effects ofDate palm polleri in male infertility.

Materials and methodsThe study was carried out on 25

patients. 2l to 45 lears in age.attending the Infertility Clinic atKirkuk General Hospital . The patientsconsulted a fertility specialist in the

hospital for complete evaluation.Testicular biopsy and other tests wereperformed to exclude obstructiveazoospermic men. Pollen's capsuleswere prepared by packaging 500 mg ofdried pollen in gelatinous capsule. Theinfertile men participated in this studywere those who had abnormal spermcount or/and motility with normalother semen parameters. During theperiod of the treatment, each patientwas advised to attend the infertilityclinic in the hospital weekly. Thepatients were treated with 500mgpollen powder twice daily for 3

months. The semen was collected inthe hospital laboratory by masturbationafler 3-7 days of the sexual abstinence,blood samples were collected forbiochemistry , hematology andhormonal analysis The seminalanalysis, and biochemical values weredetermine by routine laboratorymethods, hernatological values weredetermining using autoanalyzer .Serumlevel of LH , FSH and testosteronewere determined by radio immLuloassay All these parameters werechecked belore and after the featmentperiod.The paired t-test and the percentage

of changes were used for statisticalanalysis (ll).

ResultsSperm count and motility increased

significantly for infertile patientstreated with 500 mg pollen powdertwice daily lor 3 months (P < 0.05).The percentage of sperm count changewas (+30.034%) and sperm motilitywas (+47 .829oh)(table 1).Serum levelof FSH, LH, and testosteronesignificantly increased (P < 0.05)compared to baseline data. Thepercentage of hormonal changes were(+77.962%), (+112.984%), and ( +64.250 % ) respectively (table 2).Intercourse rate / week wassignificantly increased (P < 0.01). Thepercentage of change was

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The prcboble therapeutic effects of Date palm pollen in mde infeftilitJr

(+207 .350%) (able 3). Serum level ofALT, AST, urea, creatinine, totalprotein, total bilirubin, alkalinephosphatase and triglycerides were notsignificantly changed post therapy.However, random blood sugar andserum cholesterol were s lighr ly

increased (Table 4). There was nosignificant changes in Hb, PCV andWBC cor.urt in infertile patient after 3

months featment (table 5).Thetreatment was well tolerated, and therewere no side elfects that necessitatecessation of the treatment.

Table (1): Effects of pollen powder capsules 500 mg twice daily for3 months on semen parameters in infertile men.

Table (2): Effects of pollen powder capsules 500 mg twice daily for 3 months onFSH, LH and testosterone levels in infertile men.

Before treatment

X+SD

Level of significa ncybetwcen before rnd after

tre,rtment

24.016 x 8.290

19.l66i 4.988

Hormonallevels

- Beforetreatment

X+ SD

- Aftertreatment

X+ SD

Level ofsignificancy

betweenbefore and

aftertreatment

Percentageof change

5.958 + 1.061 +7',7 .9620

LH (mlU/ml)3.119 + 0.667 +ll2.gg4"h

Testosterone(nmol/l) 10.126 + 4.089

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Tiktit Joumsl of Pharmsceuticql Sciences 2005, 1(1) :30-35

Table (3): Effects of pollen powder capsules 500 mg twice daily for 3

months on sexual desire (intercourse/week) for infertile men'

Table (4): Effects of pollen powder capsules 500 mg twice daily for 3months on the biochemical tests in infertile men.

- BeforetreatmentX+SD

After treatmentXTSD

Level of significancybetween before and

after treatment

Percentage ofchange

2.366+0.409 7.272*7.591 P < 0.01 +207.3500/"

Biochemical test BeFore treatmentX+ SD

After treatment

X+SD

Level ofsignificancy

betweenbefore and

aftertreatment

ALr(ru/L) 1.800 + 0.712 7.100 + 0.715 NS

AST(rU/L) 8.100 + 1.127 7.000 + 0.632 NS

Serum urea(mg/dl) 20.300 + 2.403 21.000 * 7.211 NS

Serumcreatinine(ms/dL)

0.770 + 0.100 0.790 + 0.104 NS

Total serumnrotein(sm/dL)

6.320 + 0.472 6.650 + 0.512 NS

Total serumbilirubin(me/dl-) 0.660 + 0.078 0.690 + 0.068 NS

Alkalinephosphatase(KAU/L) 11.620 + 0.963 10.040 + 1 .295 NS

Triglycerides(mg/dl,) 87.000 + 1 1.431 93.500 + 12.867 NS

Random bloodsusar(ms/dL)

105.100 * 7.967 137.800 + 14.273 P < 0.05

Serumcholesterol(ms/dL)

143.000 + 15.496 150.500 + 16.401 NS

J]

The prcbable ,erapeutic effects of Date palm pollen in msle infertitib,

Table (5): Effect of pollen powder capsules 500 mg twice daily for 3months on the hematological tests after 3 months

treatment.

NS : meqns not significqnt

DiscussionSperm count increased

significantly for the infertilepalients treated with capsule packedwith dried powder of pollen of Datepalm 500 mg twice daily for 3 months.This could be attdbuted to thepresence of gonadotropically activesubstance in pollen of Dare palm( 9

'.In addition to gonadotropically activesubstance, pollen of Date Palm containsteroid precursor (lo), which mayenhances testosterone synthesis . Thiswill elucidate the increment oftestosterone levels. Moreover, thepresence of growth hormone likematerial in the pollen (e)

,which hadanabolic effects, could articipate in thisstimulation. Sperm count, active spermmotility, sexual desire, and the rate ofsexual intercourseiweek did increasefor treated infertile patients; all theseresults could be attributed to theincrement in the level of testosterone .

Testosterone regulatesspermatogenesis, the epididymalspermatozoa maturation and motilitvand sexual desire' a r

Conception of the treated men wivesincreased, a result that could beattributed to improvement of sexualdesire and semen quality r I ).

Biochemical and hematological testsclearly proved that pollen of DatePalm was a safe treatment material.

References1- Mclfor cachlan RI.; and De KretserDM. Male infertility: the case

continued research. MJA. 2001; 174:116-117.2- WHO Laboratory manual for theexamination of human semen andsperm-cervical mucus interaction.3"1 ed. Cambridge UniversityPress. 1992.3- Jequir AM. Infertility in the male.Cument reviews in obstetrics andgynecology. Edited by: Singer andJordan. Churchill Livingstone.London. 1.998:25-35.4- Chessbrough M. Medicallaboratory manual for tropicalcountries. 1'tEd. Tropical HealthTechnology. 1994: 186-187.5- Tindall VR. Principles ofgynaecology. 5"'Ed. ButterwonhHeinemann. London. 1 997: 578-585.6- Matkov TG.; Zenni M.; SandlowJ.; et al. Preoperative semen analysisas a predictor of seminallmprovement followingvaricocelectromy. Ferlil. Steril.2001:75: 63-68.

Hematologicaltest

Before treatment

X+ SD

After treatment

X+ SD

Level ofsignifiicancy

between beforeand aftertreatment

14.100 + 0.s2440.200 r 1314

WBC(celVmm3) s100 + 1138.712

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Tiktit Journal of Pharmoceuticttl Sciences 2005, 1(1) :30'35

7- Murray MT.; and Pizzomo J.

Encyclopedia of natural medicine.2nd ed. Joseph and Michael.Califomia. 1998: 575-583.8- AL-Rawi A. and Chakravar-ty HL.Medical plants of Iraq. 2nd ed.

Baghdad. 1988:74.9- Mahran GH.; Abdel-WahabSM.; and Attia AM. A phy'to-

chemical study of date palm po1len.

Plant. Med. 19'76;29(2): I7l-175.10- Rymond D.; Benne HE.; Shui-Tzek O.; and Heftman E. J. Phy'to-chemistry.1966; 5: 1.(Cited from:Ref.9).1 1- Freeman WH. The principlespractice statistics in biologicalresearch. , Biometry Co. 1989: 52-55.

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