Effect of garlic (Allium sativum) on male fertility: a systematic review

Introduction: Fertility in men mainly depends on the number, quality, motility, and morphology of the sperms, and disruption of each of these factors leads to infertility. A large number of couples suffer from infertility problems. Among the various therapies, medicinal herbs are used in many countries to treat male infertility. Current systematic review was conducted to study the effects of garlic on male fertility. Methods: The information of this systematic review was collected by searching the key words: treatment, fertility, infertility, male, herbal medicine, garlic, Allium sativum, medicinal plant, sperm, sex hormones, testis and spermatogenesis in international databases such as: Web of Science (ISI), PubMed, Scopus and Embase until March 2018. This study was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA statement for systematic reviews and meta- analysis. and the SYRCLE risk of bias tool was used for qualitative assessment. Results: A total of 18 experimental studies were included in the study. Thirteen studies evaluated garlic and 5 studies compared garlic effect with adriamycin, titanium dioxide, furan, vitamin E, N-acetylcysteine and cadmium. All studies were conducted in in vivo condition. The results of the studies indicated the potential effect of garlic on enhancing fertility and spermatogenesis, increasing the level of testosterone and improving the testicular structure. Conclusion: Garlic can increase fertility probably due to its antioxidant properties. However, more clinical trials are recommended.