Mitigation of cimetidine induced testicular toxicity in mice by Kaempferia parviflora Wall. Ex Baker rhizome extract

Kaempferia parviflora Wall. Ex Baker is a herb belonging to the family Zingiberaceae, its rhizomes were used as tea or wine and well known as Thai ginseng. This present study is to evaluate the mitigative effect of aqueous rhizome extract of K. parviflora (KPE) against testicular toxicity induced by subcutaneous injection of cimetidine 2 mg / 100 gBW for 14 days in male mice. The extracts at oral doses of 5, 10 and 20 mg / 100 gBW were pretreated for 7 days and co-treated with cimetidine for 14 days exhibited the significant results of mitigation by elevating seminal quality, higher than the cimetidine treated group (P < 0.05). This incidence was supported by the concordant results of testicular histological studies, showing the recovery of spermatogenic cells in seminiferous tubules in the group pretreated with KPE before co-treated with cimetidine by presenting a significant increase in spermatid layers. This present results suggested a possible use of aqueous K. parviflora rhizome extract as mitigative agent against testicular toxicity induced by cimetidine.