Abstract
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Salvia officinalis (sage) is widely sold in Saudi Arabia to make a popular herbal tea that women with reproductive disorders can drink daily. Despite the wide use of sage in traditional medicine, to our knowledge, little attention has been given to its effect on female reproduction. Our purpose was to understand the effects of sage extract on ovarian function to potentially shed light on its use in treating female infertility.
Forty female Wistar virgin female rats were randomly assigned to four groups, with 10 animals in each group. The control group received distilled water, and the three treatment groups received different concentrations of sage extract: 3.5, 15 or 60 mg/kg during 14 days. Ovarian tissues were cut into 5-μm sections and stained with hematoxylin and eosin. Plasma levels of reproductive steroids were measured using ELISA, and gene expression was examined via RT-PCR.
Our results showed that low doses of sage (3.5 mg/kg and 15 mg/kg) have no effects on serum concentration levels of steroid hormone, the number of growing follicles, and on the transcripts of the steroidogenesis and folliculogenesis genes. In contrast, a high dose of the extract (60 mg/kg) significantly increased estradiol concentration levels. As a result, the number of growing follicles increased, while the number of abnormal follicles significantly decreased. Interestingly, sage extract also affected mRNA levels of genes involved in folliculogenesis and steroidogenesis processes. Two autophagy related genes, LC3 and ATG12, were not affected, but all of the investigated genes, INSL3, CYP17a, LHR, CCND2, IGF1, ESR1, ESR2, ACTB, GDF, and ATG5, significantly increased with the highest dose of sage.
As a remedy, sage extract is best used at a high dose when treating female infertility disorders, as sage extract may promote ovarian function by stimulating folliculogenesis and steroidogenesis.