Antioxidant effect of Artemisia (Artemisia incana) extract on the quality of frozen-thawed semen of Moghani ram

Maintaining fertility in frozen sperm is very important. To investigate the effect of Artemisia (Artemisia incana) extract on sperm cryopservability of Moghani ram spermatozoa, different levels of the plant extract (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 ml per deciliter) were added after extraction to diluted semen with an extender containing citrate buffer. After chilling, the semen was packaged in 0.5 ml straws and stored inside the liquid nitrogen until the evaluation of qualitative properties. This experiment was designed with 4 replications (with 10 straws in each replicate) per experimental group. Evaluation of sperm viability using eosin-nigrosine staining showed that adding 4 ml of Artemisia extract per deciliter to sheep sperm diluent had a positive effect on sperm viability. Similarly, the HOST test (hypoosmotic swelling test) to examine the integrity of the plasma membrane showed that the treatment had the highest membrane integrity (P<0.05). The highest and lowest Total Motility (TM) was observed in experimental groups 4 and 10 ml of extract in diluted semen, respectively (P<0.05). Examination of peroxidative damage by measuring malondialdehyde showed the lowest amount of malondialdehyde production was seen in the treatment with 12 mg of extract per deciliter diluent that was significantly different from other experimental groups (P<0.05). According to the results of the present experiment, it seems that the use of 4 ml Artemisia extract per deciliter of the diluent has positive effects on the quality of sperm after freezing.