Impact of Supplementing Freezing Extender with Tribulus Terrestris or Lepidium Sativum Plant Extract on Post-Thawed Quality of Buffalo Bull Spermatozoa

Novel protectants are needed for optimizing freezability of buffalo bull spermatozoa in order to achieve higher fertility outcome. For this purpose, the present study investigated the effect of adding Tribulus Terrestris (TT) and Lepidium Sativum (LS) extract to semen extender on post-thawed quality of buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) bull spermatozoa. Six mature Egyptian buffaloes were used for semen collection, following initial evaluation, ejaculates were diluted with Tris-egg yolk- extender enriched with five concentrations of TT or LS extract: 0 extract (control), 5µg/ml, 20µg/ml, 50µg/ml, and 100µg/ml). The extended semen was cooled to 5°C then packaged into 0.25 ml straws, frozen on liquid nitrogen (LN) vapor and stored in LN tank. After few days, frozen straws were thawed at 37°C for 30 seconds for spermatological characteristic evaluation. Additionally, malondialdehyde (MDA) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) were measured. Results showed that post-thawed motility, viability, plasma/acrosome membrane integrity, and mitochondrial activity were significantly improved (P