20 Dec 2012. pii: S0378-8741(12)00777-5
Eurycoma longifolia Jack, a small Simaroubaceae tree, known locally as ‘Tongkat Ali’ in Malaysia ( ‘Pasak Bumi’ in Indonesia) is popularly used as a sexual tonic in traditional medicine for aphrodisiac activity and improvement of fertility and male libido.
Male rats, weighing 250–280 g were divided into seven groups of six animals each. The control group was given distilled water only, whereas the other four groups were treated with 4 different fractions of E. longifolia (F1, F2, F3 and F4) at a dose of 25 mg/kg body weight. The remaining two groups of animals were treated with 25 mg/kg (W25) and 250 mg/kg (W250) of E. longifolia aqueous extract (W). 48 days later the animals were then sacrificed and determined for sperm concentration, sperm morphology and motility.
The results showed that a significant increase in spermatogenesis was observed from 10 to 25 mg/kg, and a maximum plateau response was seen at 25 and 50 mg/kg.
The increase in sperm concentration following the F2 treatment was further confirmed by the microscopic morphometry analysis of the testicular tissue showing that the populations of preleptotene spermatogonia, pachytene spermatocytes, round spermatids, spermatozoa production rate, the height of germinal epithelium and Leydig cells count were elevated.
Amongst the four fractions, the animals treated with F2 at 25 mg/kg showed significantly higher sperm concentration than those of the rest including the control (P<0.001). The sperm concentration of the animals treated with 250 mg/kg of E. longifolia water extract (W250) was also significantly higher than control (P<0.001) and was comparable with that of F2.
The present study showed for the first time that the quassinoids E. longifolia especially the eurycomanone was involved in spermatogenesis process. The increase of the sperm concentration upon treatment with quassinoid-rich E. longifolia fraction treatment was further proven by the detailed microscopic morphometrical analyzing the germ cells followed by the estimated sperm production rate on the testicular tissue. The increase of the sperm concentration was also positively associated with the enhanced fertility index in the present study.
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