The Effect of Aqueous Extract of Violet (Viola cornuta) on Testicular Damage in Streptozotocin-induced Diabetic Rats

Abstract

Introduction: The violet flower is a plant that has long been considered by traditional medicine due to its sedative properties. Since testicular damage is one of the complications of diabetes, this study was conducted to investigate the therapeutic effect of the violet flower aquatic extract on testicular damage caused by diabetes. Materials and Methods: In this study, forty male Wistar rats weighing 200-220 g were divided into four groups: control group, diabetic group (induced by intraperitoneal injection of 55 mg/kg streptozotocin), experimental group 1 (diabetic + 100 mg/kg aqueous extract of violet flower), experimental group 2 (diabetic + 200 mg/kg aqueous extract of violet flower). The experimental groups received the aquatic extract by gavage after two months of diabetes for five weeks. At the beginning of the fifth week, blood samples were taken and hormonal factors of blood and tissue sections of testes were evaluated. Results The diabetic rats showed a significant decrease in diameter 0/98± 0/053 and number of spermatogonia 61/2±2/10 in the seminiferous tubules. In the experimental groups 1 and 2, the morphological changes in the testicular sections which induced by diabetes increased significantly, and production of germ cells were decreased in the germinal layer. Conclusion: The use of the violet flower aqueous extract significantly increased testicular damage in diabetic rats, and this extract did not have the ability to treat the testicular damage and increasing the germ cells.

Keywords

• Diabetes
• aqueous extract
• Viola cornuta
• testicular damage