Supplementation Of Bee Bread Decreases The Abnormal Sperm Without Affecting The Sperm Count Of Sprague-Dawley Rats

Traditionally, people consumed bee bread for male fertility enrichment and used mainly in folk medicine. The benefit of bee bread and its underlying potential mechanism for protecting or improving sperm parameters have not been well studied. Hence, this study aimed to determine the effect of bee bread supplementation on male reproductive organs' weight, sperm count, and sperm morphology in adult Sprague-Dawley rats. 24 male rats were randomly divided into four groups, which consist of control and treated groups comprised of 6 male rats in each group. The control rats were administered force-feeding by using a syringe, and oral gavages needle with 1ml of distilled water, meanwhile for the treated groups were administered at 1g/kg of bee bread, 2g/kg of bee bread and 3g/kg of bee bread diluted in distilled water for 28 days of treatment. From the result, there are no significant differences observed between the mean weight of testis, seminal vesicle, epididymis, and prostate gland of the control group and the treatment groups. Apart from sperm morphology, no significant differences were apparent in sperm count when compared between all groups. In conclusion, this study showed that bee bread might escalate the sperm parameter, which is sperm morphology. This study suggests the presence of an androgenic effect in bee bread.