Ameliorating Effects of Natural Antioxidant Compounds on Female Infertility: a Review
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REVIEW
Ameliorating Effects of Natural Antioxidant Compounds on Female Infertility: a Review Jitender Kumar Bhardwaj 1
&
Harish Panchal 1 & Priyanka Saraf 1
Received: 2 April 2020 / Accepted: 3 September 2020 # Society for Reproductive Investigation 2020
Abstract The prevalence of female infertility cases has been increasing at a frightening rate, affecting approximately 48 million women across the world. However, oxidative stress has been recognized as one of the main mediators of female infertility by causing various reproductive pathologies in females such as endometriosis, PCOS, preeclampsia, spontaneous abortion, and unexplained infertility. Nowadays, concerned women prefer dietary supplements with antioxidant properties over synthetic drugs as a natural way to lessen the oxidative stress and enhance their fertility. Therefore, the current review is an attempt to explore the efficacy of various natural antioxidant compounds including vitamins, carotenoids, and plant polyphenols and also of some medicinal plants in improving the fertility status of females. Our summarization of recent findings in the current article would pave the way toward the development of new possible antioxidant therapy to treat infertility in females. Natural antioxidant compounds found in fruits, vegetables, and other dietary sources, alone or in combination with other antioxidants, were found to be effective in ameliorating the oxidative stress-mediated infertility problems in both natural and assisted reproductive settings. Numerous medicinal plants showed promising results in averting the various reproductive disorders associated with female infertility, suggesting a plantbased herbal medicine to treat infertility. Although optimum levels of natural antioxidants have shown favorable results, however, their excessive intake may have adverse health impacts. Therefore, larger well-designed, dose–response studies in humans are further warranted to incorporate natural antioxidant compounds into the clinical management of female infertility. Keywords Female infertility . Amelioration . Oxidative stress . Antioxidant . Medicinal plants . Reproductive disorders
Introduction The inability to have children affects approximately 48.5 to 186 million people across the world, and surrounding it, many cultural and social stigmas vary, apart from the emotional burden to the couple itself [1, 2]. Infertility, defined as the failure to conceive a known pregnancy after a year or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse, has now become a global health issue affecting 15–25% of couples in the western countries [3, 4]. Generally, approximately 84% of the couples conceive after 1 year of sexual intercourse, and 92% after 2 years [5]. Recently, a declining trend in semen quality of Asian men have been observed over the past few decades [6] that may be accountable for the rising infertility cases due to
* Jitender Kumar Bhardwaj [email protected] 1
Reproductive Physiology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Ha
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