Herbal plants are considered as a good source of pharmacologically active compounds and used for the treatment of many diseases․ Natural products‚ like sesame oil‚ are rich in their active ingredients and they have been used in herbal medicine and alternative medicine to treat thousands of diseases․ Dibenzofuran (DBF) is a potential environmental toxicant that can cause testicular damage in male animals․ The aim of the present study was to investigate the possible role of sesame seed oil in ameliorating DBF-induced testicular toxicity and hormonal imbalance in male rats․ Forty adult male albino rats were used in the study (n=10 for each group)․ T1: Negative control, T2: Sesame oil control (4 mL/kg body weight/day, intraperitoneally). T3: DBF-intoxicated group (oral gavage at 89 mg/kg body weight), and T4: Sesame oil + DBF co-treated.  After the study the rats were weighed and blood samples collected․ The serum concentrations of testosterone (T)‚ luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) were measured and the right and left testes were removed and weighed separately․ The right testis was homogenized for measurement of malondialdehyde (MDA)‚ superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT)․ The left testis was preserved in Bouin's fixative and used for histological studies․ Microscopic observation revealed that DBF produced histological changes in the tubular and interstitial compartments of the testis‚ which included degenerative changes in the seminiferous tubules‚ disorganization of the germinal epithelium‚ degenerative changes in the spermatocytes and arrest of spermatogenesis. Compared to the controls, the DBF-treated group had a significant drop (P≤0.05) in relative testicular weight, reproductive hormone levels (testosterone, LH, and FSH), and the antioxidant markers SOD and CAT. At the same time, MDA levels raised. That pattern points to serious oxidative damage. The rats administrated sesame seed oil showed reflections of those changes were reversed. The findings concluded that sesame seed oil can help protect against the hormone-disrupting and testicular toxicity effects caused by dibenzofurans in adult male albino rats.

To Cite This Article: Melebary SJ, 2026. Ameliorating effects of sesame seed oil, a natural antioxidant, on dibenzofuran-induced testicular toxicity and hormonal imbalance as an environmental pollutant in adult albino rats. Pak Vet J, 46(5): 1110-1121. http://dx.doi.org/10.29261/pakvetj/2026.100