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DOI: 10.1002/ptr.6627
REVIEW
1
Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases Research
Center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Different types of glycosides extract of fenugreek have shown androgenic and ana-
Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
bolic effect in male. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of fenugreek
2
Nutrition Department, Faculty of
Paramedicine, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of extract on total testosterone levels in male. Medline via PubMed, Scopus databases,
Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were searched up to
3
Department of Community Nutrition, School
November 2018 for randomized clinical trials comparing intake of fenugreek extract
of Nutrition and Food Science, Isfahan
University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran with control group. Data on change in serum total testosterone were pooled using
random-effects models. A total of four trials were included. Fenugreek extract has a
Correspondence
Mojdeh Fathi, Department of Community significant effect on total serum testosterone. Results from clinical trials suggest that
Nutrition, School of Nutrition and Food
fenugreek extract supplement has an effect on serum total testosterone levels
Science, Isfahan University of Medical
Sciences, Isfahan, Iran. in male.
Email: mojdeh68.fathi@yahoo.com
KEYWORDS
Funding information
Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical fenugreek extract, total testosterone
Sciences
Phytotherapy Research. 2020;1–6. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ptr © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1
2 MANSOORI ET AL.
(Wankhede, Mohan, & Thakurdesai, 2016; Wilborn et al., 2010b). of participants, mean age, duration of supplementation, interventions,
Therefore, in the present meta-analysis of clinical trial studies, we pur- and outcome characteristics (differences between baseline and final
pose to obtain a single summary estimate of the effect of ethanolic mean and SD values of serum total testosterone levels). Graphical data
extract of fenugreek seeds on the testosterone level in males. were converted to numerical data using Graph Digitizer 2.26 software
(Wilborn et al., 2010a).
Number of
Mean participants
Author age (intervention/ Fenugreek type and dose Placebo type and Duration
(year) Country Subject (year) control) (Intervention) dose (Control) (weeks)
Guo (2018) Albany Healthy male 24.02 12/12 Furosap capsules NR 250 mg/day 12
athletes 250 mg/day
Rao (2016) Australia Healthy male 55.6 47/50 Fenugreek seed extract NR 12
600 mg/day
Wankhede India Healthy male 22.04 29/26 glycoside fraction of di-calcium 8
et al. fenugreek seeds phosphate
(2016) 2*300 mg/day 2*300 mg/day
Wilborn USA Resistance-trained 21 17/13 Fenugreek capsule Maltodextrin 8
(2010) men 500 mg/day 500 mg/day
4 MANSOORI ET AL.
TABLE 2 Quality of the four studies included in the meta-analysis, as assessed by the Cochrane collaboration tool
3.2 | Characteristics of the studies included There was heterogeneity between the trials (Q = 16.28; df = 3;
p = .001; I2 = 81.6%).
We identified a total of 206 participants, 105 individuals on interven- We used random effect to evaluate serum total testosterone
tion and 101 on placebo, from the four included eligible RCTs. All the levels due to the significant heterogeneity.
relevant studies that were published from the inception of databases The quality for each trial of the included studies is presented in
until November 2018 were assessed. Because of the importance of tes- Table 2.
tosterone effects on muscle performance, several studies evaluated the
effect of fenugreek extract in training male. So participants were
included in the study including all healthy training and non-training 4 | DI SCU SSION
male. All included studies did not show any harmful side effects of fenu-
greek extract. Details of included studies are shown in Table 1. In the present meta-analysis of the four clinical trials, fenugreek
extract supplement has significant effect on serum total testosterone
levels. Fenugreek is an annual plant in many parts of the world. Its
3.3 | Effect of fenugreek extract on total leaves, seeds, and roots are used as spice, herb, and vegetable
testosterone levels (Adamska & Lutomski, 1971; Bahmani, Shirzad, Mirhosseini,
Mesripour, & Rafieian-Kopaei, 2016; Yadav & Baquer, 2014). Studies
There was a significant effect of the rise in total testosterone levels in indicated remedy effect of Fenugreek on hypercholesterolemia and
the fenugreek extract group. In comparison with placebo group, the hyperglycemia in diabetes and prediabetes patients (Gong et al.,
mean total testosterone levels in the subjects receiving fenugreek 2016). Other results has shown that Fenugreek reduced liver
extract was higher (WMD = 0.85 95% CI [0.10, 1.60]; p = .026; enzymes, lipid accumulation, and ethanol-induced toxicity in liver
Figure 2). (Al-Wabel, Mousa, Omer, & Abdel-Salam, 2008; Kaviarasan,
MANSOORI ET AL. 5
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Bird, 2006). Moreover, fenugreek has vitamins and essential oil; its evaluation of aqueous herbal extracts and stirred yoghurt filtrate mix-
ture against alloxan-induced oxidative stress and diabetes in rats. Inter-
seeds contain several glycosides such as phenolic components like
national Journal of Pharmacology, 4, 135–139.
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