Fennel and Cinnamon Combined Extract Improve Spermatogenesis and Protect Testis Tissues in Busulfan In-duced Infertile Rats

Background: Busulfan is one of the common cancer treatment drugs with infertility side effect, fennel and cinnamon are two medicinal plants with fertility enhancement properties. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of fennel and cinnamon on busulfan induced infertile rats.Materials and Methods: 40 male wistar rats were divided into 4 groups including: sham group: healthy rats without in-tervention, control group: Busulfan treated rats, fennel group: busulfan and fennel extract treated, fennel and cinnamon group: busulfan, fennel and cinnamon extract treatment. Testicular tis-sues were sampled and the testicular physical parameters and spermatogenesis level were evaluated by H & E staining and optical microscopy imaging.Results: The biggest and the smallest length testis were ob-served in cinnamon + fennel and fennel groups respectively (P <0.05). The highest and lowest sperms level was observed in the cinnamon + fennel group and fennel group respectively (P <0.001). The total average of reproductive cells in the cinna-mon + fennel group was the most (104.17) and in control group was in least level .Conclusion: The combined extract of fennel and cinnamon sig-nificantly protect the testicular tissues against infertility effect of busulfan, however the fennel extract alone increased the bu-sulfan effect in rat.

Keywords:

Fennel , Infertility , Cinnamon , Rat , Busulfan