Effect of palm pollen extract on sexual hormone levels and follicle numbers in adult female BALB/c mice

Using chemical drugs to treat disease often is associated with side effects. Recently, using herbal medicines, which have fewer side effects, has flourished to treat many diseases, including infertility. This study was done aimed to investigate the effect of palm pollen aqueous extract on sexual hormones and follicle cells numbers in adult female BALB/c mice. This experimental study was done in animal house of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in 2012. 40 adult female BALB/c mice were divided into 5 control, sham and experimental groups receiving 100, 200 and 400mg/kg of the body weight of the extract groups each with 8 members. Levels of testosterone, estrogen and progesterone were measured by radioimmunoassay and ovarian follicles numbers were counted after separation of the ovaries and sectioning and staining using Hematoxylin & Eosin by light microscopy. The results of hormonal assays were analyzed based on One-way ANOVA and Duncan's multiple range tests using SPSS 18 software. A significant increase was observed at the level of testosterone, estrogen and progesterone compared to the control group only in the experimental group 3 (receiving 400mg/kg palm pollen extract) (p<0.01). Also, only in the experimental group 3 a significant increase was observed in the number of secondary follicles (p<0.05) and the number of antral follicles (p<0.01) compared to the control. 400mg/kg palm pollen aqueous extract increases the amount of sexual hormones and secondary and antral follicle numbers in adult female mice.