African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 5 (5), pp. 477-483, 1 March 2006   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2006 Academic Journals        

Full Length Research Paper

Genetic and histopathology studies on mice: effect of fenugreek oil on the efficiency of ovarian and liver tissues

Aziza M. Hassan¹, Wagdy K. B. Khalil¹*, Kawkab A. Ahmed²

¹Cell Biology Department, National Research Center, 12622 Dokki, Giza, Egypt.

²Pathology Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.

*Corresponding authors E-mail: wagdykh@yahoo.com. Tel: +2-02-3371433. Fax: +2-02-337 0931.

Accepted 5 January, 2006

There is a growing interest in understanding the biological effect of medicinal plants. In the present investigation, the effects of fenugreek oil administration on the liver and ovarian activity genetically (i.e., meiotic progression in collected oocytes as well as changes in DNA and RNA content in the liver and ovarian tissues) and histopathologically (i.e., alterations in the liver and ovarian tissues) were examined in mice. Swiss albino female mice were orally administrated with different doses of fenugreek oil for 10 days. The mode and magnitude of effect were found to be depending on the dose of fenugreek oil and type of tissue. Administration with fenugreek oil at 0.1 and 0.15 ml/mouse increased the total number of cumulus-oocyte complexes as well as improved their quality. Cytogenetically, fenugreek oil was able to stimulate the oocytes collected from treated mice at all doses to progress in meiosis. Levels of nucleic acids content in all groups did not significantly change neither in the DNA nor RNA in ovarian- or liver-tissues. Histopathological examination of the ovaries collected from untreated mice as well as from mice treated with 0.05 ml/mouse of fenugreek oil showed no histopathological alterations. However, ovaries of mice treated with 0.1 or 0.15 ml/mouse of fenugreek oil showed improvement in several tissues. To our knowledge, this is the first study that suggests significant stimulating effects of fenugreek oil on the ovarian activity in mice.

Key words: Fenugreek, mice, ovaries, oocytes, meiosis, DNA, RNA, histopathology.