Human Sperm Immobilization Activity of Crude Extract of Spongionella sp.(A Marine Sponge)

Abstract

The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of crude extract of a Sri Lankan marine sponge, Spongionefla sp. on the motility of human spermatozoa in vitro. The solvent system used for the extraction was dichloromethanemethanol (1 : 1)and the concentrations tested were 3, 6, 12.5,25 and 125 mg/ml The period of study was 60 min. The results show that the extract inhibited motility of sperm both in a dose - and time - dependent manner. Furthermore at higher concentrations, the extract caused complete immobilization of sperm. Accompanied with the impairment of motility there was also a curling of sperm tails and an agglutination of sperm heads.