Pure Honey a potent fertility booster: Activities of Honey on sperm parameters in young adult rats.

Abstract

Honey is a natural product of bees containing numerous nutrients that have significant benefits to human race. These benefits stretch across from its antiseptic, antibacterial, and wound healing properties to its possible sex boosting properties. Due to environmental, nutritional, behavioral and physiological factors, male infertility has become an ubiquitous issue over the world. This study therefore investigates the effect of honey on some sperm parameters in rats. Eighteen adult male rats weighing 130g-165g were used for this study. They were randomly divided into three groups with group A serving as the control; group B served as the standard group treated with a standard drug (622mg/kg); and group C was treated with honey (1ml of honey per 100g of body weight). They were treated for 65 days thereafter, the sperm count, motility, and morphology were evaluated. The mean value of the sperm count of group C rats (130.5±7.50 x10 6 /ml) was significantly higher than the group B rats (104.3±3.48 x10 6 /ml) and the group A rats (93.5± x10 6 /ml) at p<0.05. The sperm motility of group C animals, 85 ± 5.0%, was significantly higher (p<0.05) when compared to group B animals, 33.3 ± 3.33%, and group A animals, 75 ± 5.0%. The percentage of abnormal sperm was reduced in group C rats (5%) as compared to group B (8.3%) and group A rats (10%). This study showed that honey increases the sperm count, the sperm motility and improves the sperm morphology. Thus it serves as a potential fertility booster in experimental animals.