Zingiber officinale Protective Effects on Gentamicin's Toxicity on Sperm in Rats

Ginger rhizome (Zingiber officinale R., family: Zingiberaceae) is used medicinally and as a culinary spice and has anti-oxidant and cell-protective effects in animals and humans body. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of Ginger rhizome toxicity of Gentamicin on sperm parameters in male rats. Forty Wistar male rat (n=40) were allocated into four groups, control (n=10) and test groups (n=30), that subdivided into groups of 3 that received ginger rhizome powder (100 mg/kg/day), gentamicin group that received, 5 mg/kg/day and ginger group that received, 5 mg/kg/day gentamicin additionally, for 30 consequence day. Animals were kept in standard conditions. In thirty day the testes tissue of Rats in whole groups were collected. Ginger administration caused a marked increase in the testosterone concentrations of the rats even in spite of receiving 5 mg/kg/day gentamicin in compared with the control and gentamicin treated groups. Ginger rhizome is able to overcome reproductive toxicity of gentamicin and induces spermatogenesis probably mainly through the elevation of testosterone levels.