Abstract

15 male rats were grouped and administered crude ethanolic extracts of Garcinia cambogia seeds to test the effects on the histology of the testis and sperm counts. Group A served as the control while Groups B and C received 100 and 200 mg/kg body weight of extracts, respectively. The administration was done orally once a day, six days a week for six weeks. The routine histological preparation at the end of administration revealed increase in the interstitial spaces, degeneration of the Ledgid cells and distortion in the arrangement of the cells of spermatogenic series. The sperm counts revealed a significant increase in the experimental groups when compared statistically with the control (p<0.05). It was 81.5 ± 13.62 ´ 10⁶/ml and 70 ± 12.98 ´10⁶/ml in groups Band C, respectively, as compared to 59.8 ± 2.14 ´ 10⁶/ml in the Control group.

Key words: Garcinia cambogia, sperm count, histology, Leydig cells, interstitial spaces.