Regular consumption of pomegranate juice may enhance the quality and mobility of sperm, a study suggests.
The link between the antioxidant-rich juice and male fertility could see pomegranate seen as much more than a heart healthy food, if the new results concerning male rats can be translated to humans.
“The results of this study demonstrated, for the first time, that daily consumption of pomegranate juice for seven weeks caused increased spermatogenic cell density, epididymal sperm concentration, sperm motility and decreased abnormal sperm rate related with decreased lipid peroxidation in male rats,” the journal Clinical Nutrition reported lead Gaffari Turk from Firat University in Turkey as saying.
The new study suggests the health benefits of the fruit may improve fertility, and comes only months after a pilot study reported that pomegranate juice may help manage erectile dysfunction. Turk and co-workers divided 28 male Wistar rats into four groups, and assigned them to drink a mixture of pomegranate juice and water daily for seven weeks.
At the end of the experiment, the researchers report that levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), a reactive carbonyl compound and a major end product of lipid oxidation, significantly decreased as a result of pomegranate consumption, with the a 48.5 and 63.5 per cent decrease in the serum and sperm of the animals drinking the concentrated juice, respectively, compared to controls.
“Spermatozoa are especially susceptible to peroxidative damage because of the high concentration of polyunsaturated fatty acids which are involved in regulation of sperm maturation, [and] spermatogenesis,” explained the researchers.
Significant further research is necessary to investigate if such observations would be reproducible in humans, and the necessary doses required to illicit such improvements.
The pomegranate has been the subject of much research and scientists claim that the fruit can prevent a host of aliments. As well as containing antioxidants and vitamins, the fruit may be a preventative to heart disease, and there are claims that it may offer protection against prostate cancer, Alzheimer’s, and may slow cartilage loss in arthritis.
