Raw and boiled ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) inclusive diet improves fertility parameters in high cholesterol diet-induced obese rats.

Background: Obesity has been implicated in reproductive problems, particularly in male functionality disorder while the therapeutic effects of ginger have been owing to its pharmacological activities.

Aim: The study compares ginger-inclusive diet effects on fertility parameters in obese rats.

Methods: Rats were given a high-cholesterol diet to induce obesity. The rats were split up into seven separate groups (n = 10): healthy control rats fed basal diet; obese untreated rats fed high cholesterol diet (HCD); reference drug-treated obese rats, clomiphene citrate (CC, 2 mg/kg BW/day); obese rats fed high cholesterol diet supplemented with 2% Raw Ginger (RG); obese rats fed high cholesterol diet supplemented with 4% RG; obese rats fed high cholesterol diet supplemented with 2% Boiled Ginger (BG); obese rats fed high cholesterol diet supplemented with 4% BG for twenty-four weeks.

Results: A diet supplemented with raw and boiled ginger fed to obese rats increased adiponectin, estradiol, glycogen, enzymic and non-enzymic antioxidant levels with a concomitant reduction in leptin, lipid peroxidation and testicular cholesterol levels. Both raw and boiled ginger supplementation led to reductions in body weight of the obese rats. Furthermore, raw and boiled ginger improved sperm quality in obese rats by increasing sperm count, motility, viability and normality. Raw and boiled ginger also increased 3β and 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, lactate dehydrogenase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activities as well as follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinising hormone and testosterone levels. In addition, both raw and boiled ginger increased Leydig cells and sperm cells while decreasing adipocyte size in the histological architecture of the testis, epididymis, and epididymal fat.

Conclusion: This study found that both raw and boiled ginger-supplemented diets improved sexual function in obese rats by modulating metabolic hormones, sperm parameters, steroidogenic enzymes, and reproductive hormones, with the boiled ginger treatment outperforming the raw ginger treatment. As a result, we believe that boiled ginger, in addition to its effect on body weight regulation, may be useful in the treatment of obesity-induced male reproductive problems.