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Full Research Article

Effect of Feeding of Crocus sativus on Semen Quality of Buck

P
Pankhi Priya Bora1
D
Dibyajyoti Talukdar1,*
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4573-8677
D
Dipan Rudra Paul1
K
K. Lalrintluanga1
K
Kalyan Sarma1
T
T.C. Tolenkhomba1
P
Probal Jyoti Doley1
1College of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry, Central Agricultural University, Aizawl-796 015, Mizoram, India.

ABSTRACT

Background: In traditional medicine, saffron has been used with various applications such as sexual potential stimulant. Saffron improves sexual functions such as erectile function, seminal parameters. The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of feeding of Crocus sativus on semen quality of buck.

Methods: A total of 10 matured healthy bucks of about 1-1.5 years age group were selected and grouped under two groups: Group A  and Group B comprising 5 bucks in each group. The prepared stigma of Crocus sativus was fed at the dose rate of the 41 g and 82 g mixed with basal diet orally once daily to group A and group B, respectively for 1 month. Semen was collected from each buck on day 0 (before feeding),10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60. The fresh semen samples were evaluated for colour, volume, mass activity, concentration of sperm by Neubauer hemocytometer, initial motility of sperm by conventional method, live sperm count by Eosin-Nigrosin staining, acrosomal integrity by Giemsa staining, sperm membrane integrity by HOST reacted sperm, sperm abnormalities by Eosin-Nigrosin staining.

Result: The mean volume of semen, mass activity, sperm concentration, percentage of motile sperm, per cent of live sperm, per cent of intact plasma membrane, per cent of intact acrosome were significantly (P<0.01) increased from day 0 to day 60 in both the groups. The mean volume of semen, mass activity, sperm concentration, percentage of motile sperm, per cent of live sperm, per cent of intact plasma membrane, per cent of intact acrosome were significantly differed on all the days in group B as compared to group A. The mean percentage of total abnormalities including bent tail, loose head and terminally coiled tail in all the buck semen was significantly (P<0.01) decreased from day 0 to day 60 in both the groups after collection. The mean percentage of total abnormalities including bent tail, loose head and terminally coiled tail in all the buck semen was significantly differed on all the days in group B as compared to group A. The feeding of the Crocus sativus (stigma) at the dose rate of 41 g and 82 g orally daily for 30 days significantly improved the buck semen quality. The feeding of the Crocus sativus at the dose rate of 82 g orally daily for 30 days was found to be the better as compared to feeding the bucks at the dose rate of 41 g.

INTRODUCTION

Crocus sativus (saffron) is a perennial herb of the Iridaceae family with antioxidative prosperities (Kanakis et al., 2007). In some countries such as India, Spain and China, saffron has been used to treat infertility and impotence from long ago (Chatterjee et al., 2005). The interested segment of saffron is its stigma. Its dried red stigma is commercially used as a food spice. Saffron has also been widely used in folk medicine as an antispasmodic, eupeptic, pain killer, anticatarrhal, carminative, diaphoretic, expectorant, stimulant, stomachic, aphrodisiac and emmenagogue (Rios et al., 1996). Crocus sativus compounds have medicinal activity and important volatile agents (safranal), bitter principles (picrocrocin) and dye materials (crocetin and its glycoside, crocin). Saffron’s extract has various compounds like a- Krustyn, crocins including the crocin, tricrocin and safranal. Saffron and its constituents such as safranal and crocins decrease free radicals in vitro experiments (Botsoglou et al., 2005). In traditional medicine, saffron has been used with various applications such as sexual potential stimulant. Saffron improves rigiscan parameters (rigidity and tumescence) and sexual functions such as erectile function, seminal parameters (Mohammadi et al., 2013; Talukdar et al., 2022). Antioxidant properties of crocin can improve sperm quality by increasing expression of antioxidant genes (Pham et al., 2000; Hosseinzadeh et al., 2008; Talukdar et al., 2016). Crocin may reduce hypophyseal-hypothalamus sensitivity to testosterone feedback control on luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion. Therefore, positive changes in the sperm quality might be due to the hydroxyl radical scavenging activity of crocin which has been shown to inhibit lipid peroxidation (Hosseinzadeh et al., 2009). Increased sperm counts might possibility be caused by the anti-apoptotic effects of crocin (Mousavi et al., 2014). Crocin has been shown to act like an anti-oxidant in vivo, preventing the formation of free radicals and lipid peroxidation, hence, preventing oxidant-induced apoptosis (Aung et al., 2007). Keeping in view, the present study was undertook to investigate the effect of feeding of saffron on quality of semen in buck.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study was conducted on ten mature, healthy with normal reproductive characteristics, non-descript bucks, age ranging from 1 to 1.5 years maintained at Livestock Farm Complex, College of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry, Central Agricultural University, Selesih, Aizawl, Mizoram. The Crocus sativus (saffron) plant was identified at Dept. of Forestry, Mizoram University, Aizawl, Mizoram, India. Experimental bucks were divided into two groups i.e.Group A and B comprising 5 bucks in each group. Group A was fed with 41 mg of stigma of Crocus sativus (saffron) orally daily mixing with basal diet for 30 days and group B was fed with 82 mg of saffron orally daily mixing with basal diet for 30 days (Mardani et al., 2014). The total cost of feeding per animal was Rs. 200.00. During the investigation, all of the experimental animals were given a routine check-up to ensure that they were in good reproductive and general health and raised individually in a sanitary environment with adequate feed and drinking water (Talukdar et al., 2023). The semen was collected on day 0 (before feeding), 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 by using artificial vagina (AV) method (Austin et al., 1968). A total of 70 ejaculates, 7 from each buck were taken for the study. The fresh semen samples were examined for colour through visual inspection, semen volume of each buck was measured by Eppendorf tube, concentration of sperm by Neubauer hemocytometer (Salisbury et al., 1978) mass activity (Saxena, 2000), percentage of progressive motile sperm (Paul et al., 2024), live sperm by Eosin-Nigrosin staining (Blom, 1950), sperm membrane integrity by HOST test (Jeyendran et al., 1984), acrosome integrity by Giemsa staining (Watson, 1975) and total abnormalities (Blom, 1950). The data collected from the study were subjected to statistical analysis as per methods described by Snedecor and Cochran (1994).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The mean sperm volume of buck semen, sperm concentration, mass activity, initial motility, per cent live sperm, intact plasma membrane (HOST positive) and intact acrosome was significantly (P<0.01) increased on day 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 in both the groups which was depicted in Table 1.

Table 1: Characteristics of different buck semen after supplementation of Saffron (Mean±SE).


       
The semen volume was significantly (P<0.01) higher in group B on day 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and day 60 in comparison to group A. There was no significant difference in the mean semen volume in group B as compared to group A on day 0.The mean sperm concentration was significantly increased in group B (P<0.05) as compared to group A. The mean mass activity in group B was significantly (P<0.01) differed on day 0, 10 and 60 as compared to group A. There was no significant difference observed between the groups on day 20, 30, 40 and 50. The mean per cent of motile sperm was significantly differed in group B on day 10(P<0.05), 20(P<0.05), 30(P<0.01), 40(P<0.01), 50(P<0.01) and 60(P<0.01) as compared to group A. There was no significant difference in group B on day 0 as compared to group A. The mean per cent of live sperm in group B was significantly increased on day 0(P<0.05), 10(P<0.01), 20(P<0.01), 30(P<0.01), 40(P<0.05), 50(P<0.01) and day 60(P<0.01) as compared.to group A. The mean percentage of intact plasma membrane was significantly increased in group B on day 30(P<0.05), 40(P<0.05), 50(P<0.01) and day 60(P<0.01) in comparison to group A. The mean percentage of intact plasma membrane was not significantly differed on day 0, 10 and 20 in group B as compared to group A. The mean percentage of intact acrosome was significantly differed on day 30 (P<0.05) and day 50(P<0.01) in group B as compared to group A. There was no significant difference in mean percentage of intact acrosome on day 0, 10, 20, 40 and 60 in group B as compared to group A.The mean value of total sperm abnormalities (%) of different bucks of group A recorded just after the collection of semen were 11.00±0.80, 8.80±0.93, 6.80±0.85, 4.21±1.14, 2.62±0.60, 2.62±0.24 and 1.81±0.66 on day 0(before feeding), 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60, respectively. The mean value of total sperm abnormalities (%) of different bucks of group B recorded just after the collection of semen were 8.61±1.03, 5.41±0.81, 3.61±0.63, 2.22±0.37, 2.02±0.43, 1.00±0.42 and 1.00±0.32 on day 0(before feeding), 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60, respectively. The mean percentage of total abnormalities in all the buck semen was significantly (P<0.01) decreased from day 0 to day 60 in both the groups after collection. The mean percentage of total abnormalities were significantly decreased on day 0(P<0.05), 10(P<0.05) and 20(P<0.05) in group B as compared to group A. The mean percentage of total abnormalities were not significantly differed on day 30, 40, 50 and 60 in group B as compared to group A. The present findings of volume, sperm concentration, mass activity, initial motility, live sperm, intact plasma membrane (HOST positive) and intact acrosome was in close agreement with the observations reported by Mardani et al., (2014) and Vaez et al. (2014). Mardani et al., (2014) reported the increase in mean value of sperm concentration(106/ml), motility (%), intact acrosome(%), sperm viability (%) in comparison to control group when 30 mature male wistar rats: Saffron and control group was fed with 100 mg/kg/day and 0.5 ml/day distilled water via oro-gastric catheter, respectively. It was also reported that, saffron treated group had less sperm abnormalities (%) than the control group. Vaez et al. (2014) concluded that the mean percentage of HOST positive sperm was increased in the groups (male wistar rats) which were fed with vitamin E and saffron groups, as compared to control group when saffron (100 mg/kg/day, n= 10), vitamin E (100 mg/kg/day, n= 10) and distilled water (0.5 ml/day, n= 10, control group) by gavage for 60 consecutive days. The reason for this improvement can be due to feeding of saffron, where the stigma of the plant contains crocin and safranal as major bioactive compounds which have antioxidant and adaptogenic properties that increase the testosterone level and enhances semen quality by decreasing free radicals, protecting sperms from oxidative damage.

CONCLUSION

The feeding of saffron at the dose rate of 41 mg and 82 mg orally daily for 30 days significantly improved the buck semen quality. The feeding of saffron at the dose rate of 82 mg orally daily for 30 days was found to be the better as compared to feeding the bucks at the dose rate of 41 mg.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article. No funding or sponsorship influenced the design of the study, data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

REFERENCES


  1. Aung, H.H., Wang, C.Z., Ni, M., Fishbein, A., Mehendale, S.R., Xie, J.T. and Yuan, C.S. (2007). Crocin from Crocus sativus possesses significant anti-proliferation effects on human colorectal cancer cells. Exp. Oncol. 29(3): 175-180.

  2. Austin, J.W., Leiky, R.B., Krise, G.M. and Hupp, E.W. (1968). Normal values of semen collected from Spanish goats by two methods. J. Appl. Physiol. 24(3): 369 372.

  3. Blom, E. (1950). A one-minute live-dead sperm stain by means of eosin-nigrosin. Fertil. Steril. 1: 176-177.

  4. Botsoglou, N.A., Florou-Paneri, P. and Nikolakakis, I. (2005). Effect of dietary saffron (Crocus sativus L.) on the oxidative stability of egg yolk. Br. Poult. Sci. 46: 701-707.

  5. Chatterjee, S., Poduval, T.B., Tilak, J.C. and Devasagayam, T.P. (2005). A modified, economic, sensitive method for measuring total antioxidant capacities of human plasma and natural compounds using Indian saffron (Crocus sativus). Clin. Chim. Acta. 352(1-2): 155-163.

  6. Hosseinzadeh, H., Abootorabi, A. and Sadeghnia, H.R. (2008). Protective effect of crocus sativus stigma extract and crocin (trans crocin 4) on methyl methanesulfonate- induced DNA dam age in mice organs. DNA Cell Biol. 27(12): 657-664.

  7. Hosseinzadeh, H., Shamsaie, F. and Mehri, S. (2009). Antioxidant activity of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of crocus sativus L. stigma and its bioactive constituent, crocin and safranal. Pharmacog Mag. 5(20): 419-424.

  8. Jeyendran, R.S., Van der Ven, H.H., Perez-Pelaez, M., Crabo, B.G. and Zaneveld, L.J.D. (1984). Development of an assay to assess the functional integrity of the human sperm membrane and its relationship to other semen characteristics. Reprod. 70(1): 219-228.

  9. Kanakis, C.D., Tarantilis, P.A., Tajmir-Riahi, H.A. and Polissiou, M.G. (2007). Crocetin, dimethylcrocetin and safranal bind human serum albumin: Stability and antioxidative properties. J. Agric. Food. Chem. 55(3): 970-977.

  10. Mardani, M., Vaez, A. and Razavi, S. (2014). Effect of saffron on rat sperm chromatin integrity. Iran. J. Reprod. Med. 12(5): 343.

  11. Mohammadi, F., Nikzad, H., Taherian, A., AminiMahabadi, J. and Salehi, M. (2013). Effects of herbal medicine on male infertility. Anat. Sci. J. 10(4): 3-16.

  12. Mousavi, M., Baharara, J., Zafar-Balanezhad, S. and ShaheokhAbadi, K. (2014). The effect of saffron aqua extract on angiogenesis in chick chorioalantoic membrane. Zahedan Res. Med. Sci. 16(3): 55-58.

  13. Paul, D.R., Talukdar, D., Chakravarty, H., Ahmed, F.A., Lalrintluanga, K., Kalita, G., Tolenkhomba, T.C., Ghosh, J., Debbarma, V. and Deori, S. (2024). Assessment of crossbred hampshire boar semen on liquid preservation at 15°C. Haryana Vet. 63(SI): 19-21.

  14. Pham, T.Q., Cormier, F., Farnworth, E., Tong, V.H. and Van Calsteren, M.R. (2000). Antioxidant properties of crocin from Gardenia jasminoides Ellis and study of the reactions of crocin with linoleic acid and crocin with oxygen. J. Agric. Food Chem. 48: 1455-61. 

  15. Rios, J.L., Recio, M.C., Giner, R.M. and Manez, S. (1996). An update review of saffron and its active constituents. Phytother. Res. 10(3): 189-193.

  16. Salisbury, G.W., Van Demark, N.L. and Lodge, J.R. (1978). Physiology of Reproduction and Artificial Insemination of Cattle. 2nd ed. San Francisco, W.H. Free man. 385-479.

  17. Saxena, M.S. (2000). Methods of semen collection in various species. In: Veterinary andrology and artificial insemination, Saxena, M.S. (ed), 1st edn. CBS, New Delhi, 63.

  18. Snedecor, G.W. and Cochran, W.G. (1994). Statistical Methods. Publ. Oxford and IBH publishing Co. New Delhi. 4: 445- 446.

  19. Talukdar, D., Luwang, A.D., Lalrintluanga, K., Tolenkhomba, T.C., Das, H., Kalita, G. and Sarma, K. (2023). Assessment of libido and semen quality of boar by using low cost portable wooden dummy sow. Indian J. Anim. Res. doi: 10.18805/IJAR.B-5022.

  20. Talukdar, D., Sarma, K., Kalita, G., Rahman, S., Goswami, R., Chethan, G.E., Das, H. and Konwar, B. (2022). Role of animal husbandry practice in upliftment of socio-economic status of Mizo farmer: A Review. Bhartiya Krishi Anusandhan Patrika. 38(1): 09-18. doi: 10.18805/BKAP572.

  21. Talukdar, D.J., Talukdar, P. and Ahmed, K. (2016). Minerals and its impact on fertility of livestock: A review. Agricultural Reviews. 37(4): 333-337.

  22. Vaez, A., Mardani, M. and Razavi, S. (2014). Impact of saffron on rat sperm membrane integrity and spermatogenesis status. Adv. Biomed. Res. 3(1): 146.

  23. Watson, P.F. (1975). Use of a Giemsa stain to detect changes in acrosome of frozen ram spermatozoa. Vet. Rec. 97: 12-15.
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    Full Research Article

    Effect of Feeding of Crocus sativus on Semen Quality of Buck

    P
    Pankhi Priya Bora1
    D
    Dibyajyoti Talukdar1,*
    https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4573-8677
    D
    Dipan Rudra Paul1
    K
    K. Lalrintluanga1
    K
    Kalyan Sarma1
    T
    T.C. Tolenkhomba1
    P
    Probal Jyoti Doley1
    1College of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry, Central Agricultural University, Aizawl-796 015, Mizoram, India.

    ABSTRACT

    Background: In traditional medicine, saffron has been used with various applications such as sexual potential stimulant. Saffron improves sexual functions such as erectile function, seminal parameters. The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of feeding of Crocus sativus on semen quality of buck.

    Methods: A total of 10 matured healthy bucks of about 1-1.5 years age group were selected and grouped under two groups: Group A  and Group B comprising 5 bucks in each group. The prepared stigma of Crocus sativus was fed at the dose rate of the 41 g and 82 g mixed with basal diet orally once daily to group A and group B, respectively for 1 month. Semen was collected from each buck on day 0 (before feeding),10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60. The fresh semen samples were evaluated for colour, volume, mass activity, concentration of sperm by Neubauer hemocytometer, initial motility of sperm by conventional method, live sperm count by Eosin-Nigrosin staining, acrosomal integrity by Giemsa staining, sperm membrane integrity by HOST reacted sperm, sperm abnormalities by Eosin-Nigrosin staining.

    Result: The mean volume of semen, mass activity, sperm concentration, percentage of motile sperm, per cent of live sperm, per cent of intact plasma membrane, per cent of intact acrosome were significantly (P<0.01) increased from day 0 to day 60 in both the groups. The mean volume of semen, mass activity, sperm concentration, percentage of motile sperm, per cent of live sperm, per cent of intact plasma membrane, per cent of intact acrosome were significantly differed on all the days in group B as compared to group A. The mean percentage of total abnormalities including bent tail, loose head and terminally coiled tail in all the buck semen was significantly (P<0.01) decreased from day 0 to day 60 in both the groups after collection. The mean percentage of total abnormalities including bent tail, loose head and terminally coiled tail in all the buck semen was significantly differed on all the days in group B as compared to group A. The feeding of the Crocus sativus (stigma) at the dose rate of 41 g and 82 g orally daily for 30 days significantly improved the buck semen quality. The feeding of the Crocus sativus at the dose rate of 82 g orally daily for 30 days was found to be the better as compared to feeding the bucks at the dose rate of 41 g.

    INTRODUCTION

    Crocus sativus (saffron) is a perennial herb of the Iridaceae family with antioxidative prosperities (Kanakis et al., 2007). In some countries such as India, Spain and China, saffron has been used to treat infertility and impotence from long ago (Chatterjee et al., 2005). The interested segment of saffron is its stigma. Its dried red stigma is commercially used as a food spice. Saffron has also been widely used in folk medicine as an antispasmodic, eupeptic, pain killer, anticatarrhal, carminative, diaphoretic, expectorant, stimulant, stomachic, aphrodisiac and emmenagogue (Rios et al., 1996). Crocus sativus compounds have medicinal activity and important volatile agents (safranal), bitter principles (picrocrocin) and dye materials (crocetin and its glycoside, crocin). Saffron’s extract has various compounds like a- Krustyn, crocins including the crocin, tricrocin and safranal. Saffron and its constituents such as safranal and crocins decrease free radicals in vitro experiments (Botsoglou et al., 2005). In traditional medicine, saffron has been used with various applications such as sexual potential stimulant. Saffron improves rigiscan parameters (rigidity and tumescence) and sexual functions such as erectile function, seminal parameters (Mohammadi et al., 2013; Talukdar et al., 2022). Antioxidant properties of crocin can improve sperm quality by increasing expression of antioxidant genes (Pham et al., 2000; Hosseinzadeh et al., 2008; Talukdar et al., 2016). Crocin may reduce hypophyseal-hypothalamus sensitivity to testosterone feedback control on luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion. Therefore, positive changes in the sperm quality might be due to the hydroxyl radical scavenging activity of crocin which has been shown to inhibit lipid peroxidation (Hosseinzadeh et al., 2009). Increased sperm counts might possibility be caused by the anti-apoptotic effects of crocin (Mousavi et al., 2014). Crocin has been shown to act like an anti-oxidant in vivo, preventing the formation of free radicals and lipid peroxidation, hence, preventing oxidant-induced apoptosis (Aung et al., 2007). Keeping in view, the present study was undertook to investigate the effect of feeding of saffron on quality of semen in buck.

    MATERIALS AND METHODS

    The study was conducted on ten mature, healthy with normal reproductive characteristics, non-descript bucks, age ranging from 1 to 1.5 years maintained at Livestock Farm Complex, College of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry, Central Agricultural University, Selesih, Aizawl, Mizoram. The Crocus sativus (saffron) plant was identified at Dept. of Forestry, Mizoram University, Aizawl, Mizoram, India. Experimental bucks were divided into two groups i.e.Group A and B comprising 5 bucks in each group. Group A was fed with 41 mg of stigma of Crocus sativus (saffron) orally daily mixing with basal diet for 30 days and group B was fed with 82 mg of saffron orally daily mixing with basal diet for 30 days (Mardani et al., 2014). The total cost of feeding per animal was Rs. 200.00. During the investigation, all of the experimental animals were given a routine check-up to ensure that they were in good reproductive and general health and raised individually in a sanitary environment with adequate feed and drinking water (Talukdar et al., 2023). The semen was collected on day 0 (before feeding), 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 by using artificial vagina (AV) method (Austin et al., 1968). A total of 70 ejaculates, 7 from each buck were taken for the study. The fresh semen samples were examined for colour through visual inspection, semen volume of each buck was measured by Eppendorf tube, concentration of sperm by Neubauer hemocytometer (Salisbury et al., 1978) mass activity (Saxena, 2000), percentage of progressive motile sperm (Paul et al., 2024), live sperm by Eosin-Nigrosin staining (Blom, 1950), sperm membrane integrity by HOST test (Jeyendran et al., 1984), acrosome integrity by Giemsa staining (Watson, 1975) and total abnormalities (Blom, 1950). The data collected from the study were subjected to statistical analysis as per methods described by Snedecor and Cochran (1994).

    RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

    The mean sperm volume of buck semen, sperm concentration, mass activity, initial motility, per cent live sperm, intact plasma membrane (HOST positive) and intact acrosome was significantly (P<0.01) increased on day 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 in both the groups which was depicted in Table 1.

    Table 1: Characteristics of different buck semen after supplementation of Saffron (Mean±SE).


           
    The semen volume was significantly (P<0.01) higher in group B on day 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and day 60 in comparison to group A. There was no significant difference in the mean semen volume in group B as compared to group A on day 0.The mean sperm concentration was significantly increased in group B (P<0.05) as compared to group A. The mean mass activity in group B was significantly (P<0.01) differed on day 0, 10 and 60 as compared to group A. There was no significant difference observed between the groups on day 20, 30, 40 and 50. The mean per cent of motile sperm was significantly differed in group B on day 10(P<0.05), 20(P<0.05), 30(P<0.01), 40(P<0.01), 50(P<0.01) and 60(P<0.01) as compared to group A. There was no significant difference in group B on day 0 as compared to group A. The mean per cent of live sperm in group B was significantly increased on day 0(P<0.05), 10(P<0.01), 20(P<0.01), 30(P<0.01), 40(P<0.05), 50(P<0.01) and day 60(P<0.01) as compared.to group A. The mean percentage of intact plasma membrane was significantly increased in group B on day 30(P<0.05), 40(P<0.05), 50(P<0.01) and day 60(P<0.01) in comparison to group A. The mean percentage of intact plasma membrane was not significantly differed on day 0, 10 and 20 in group B as compared to group A. The mean percentage of intact acrosome was significantly differed on day 30 (P<0.05) and day 50(P<0.01) in group B as compared to group A. There was no significant difference in mean percentage of intact acrosome on day 0, 10, 20, 40 and 60 in group B as compared to group A.The mean value of total sperm abnormalities (%) of different bucks of group A recorded just after the collection of semen were 11.00±0.80, 8.80±0.93, 6.80±0.85, 4.21±1.14, 2.62±0.60, 2.62±0.24 and 1.81±0.66 on day 0(before feeding), 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60, respectively. The mean value of total sperm abnormalities (%) of different bucks of group B recorded just after the collection of semen were 8.61±1.03, 5.41±0.81, 3.61±0.63, 2.22±0.37, 2.02±0.43, 1.00±0.42 and 1.00±0.32 on day 0(before feeding), 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60, respectively. The mean percentage of total abnormalities in all the buck semen was significantly (P<0.01) decreased from day 0 to day 60 in both the groups after collection. The mean percentage of total abnormalities were significantly decreased on day 0(P<0.05), 10(P<0.05) and 20(P<0.05) in group B as compared to group A. The mean percentage of total abnormalities were not significantly differed on day 30, 40, 50 and 60 in group B as compared to group A. The present findings of volume, sperm concentration, mass activity, initial motility, live sperm, intact plasma membrane (HOST positive) and intact acrosome was in close agreement with the observations reported by Mardani et al., (2014) and Vaez et al. (2014). Mardani et al., (2014) reported the increase in mean value of sperm concentration(106/ml), motility (%), intact acrosome(%), sperm viability (%) in comparison to control group when 30 mature male wistar rats: Saffron and control group was fed with 100 mg/kg/day and 0.5 ml/day distilled water via oro-gastric catheter, respectively. It was also reported that, saffron treated group had less sperm abnormalities (%) than the control group. Vaez et al. (2014) concluded that the mean percentage of HOST positive sperm was increased in the groups (male wistar rats) which were fed with vitamin E and saffron groups, as compared to control group when saffron (100 mg/kg/day, n= 10), vitamin E (100 mg/kg/day, n= 10) and distilled water (0.5 ml/day, n= 10, control group) by gavage for 60 consecutive days. The reason for this improvement can be due to feeding of saffron, where the stigma of the plant contains crocin and safranal as major bioactive compounds which have antioxidant and adaptogenic properties that increase the testosterone level and enhances semen quality by decreasing free radicals, protecting sperms from oxidative damage.

    CONCLUSION

    The feeding of saffron at the dose rate of 41 mg and 82 mg orally daily for 30 days significantly improved the buck semen quality. The feeding of saffron at the dose rate of 82 mg orally daily for 30 days was found to be the better as compared to feeding the bucks at the dose rate of 41 mg.

    CONFLICT OF INTEREST

    The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article. No funding or sponsorship influenced the design of the study, data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

    REFERENCES


    1. Aung, H.H., Wang, C.Z., Ni, M., Fishbein, A., Mehendale, S.R., Xie, J.T. and Yuan, C.S. (2007). Crocin from Crocus sativus possesses significant anti-proliferation effects on human colorectal cancer cells. Exp. Oncol. 29(3): 175-180.

    2. Austin, J.W., Leiky, R.B., Krise, G.M. and Hupp, E.W. (1968). Normal values of semen collected from Spanish goats by two methods. J. Appl. Physiol. 24(3): 369 372.

    3. Blom, E. (1950). A one-minute live-dead sperm stain by means of eosin-nigrosin. Fertil. Steril. 1: 176-177.

    4. Botsoglou, N.A., Florou-Paneri, P. and Nikolakakis, I. (2005). Effect of dietary saffron (Crocus sativus L.) on the oxidative stability of egg yolk. Br. Poult. Sci. 46: 701-707.

    5. Chatterjee, S., Poduval, T.B., Tilak, J.C. and Devasagayam, T.P. (2005). A modified, economic, sensitive method for measuring total antioxidant capacities of human plasma and natural compounds using Indian saffron (Crocus sativus). Clin. Chim. Acta. 352(1-2): 155-163.

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