Methods: Twelve rats were equally divided into two groups. Group I received normal saline, and group II received 0.6 mg/kg body weight nicotine intraperitoneally for 28 consecutive days. At the end of the experimental period, sperm was collected for sperm characteristic evaluation, and the testes and prostate were isolated for biochemical and morphological analysis. The effects of nicotine on the body and reproductive organ weights of the animals were evaluated.

Results: Chronic nicotine treatment significantly (P < 0.05) altered the sperm count, motility, viability, and morphology, and remarkably increased the malondialdehyde (P < 0.001) and advanced oxidation protein product (P < 0.05) levels in the testes and prostate of nicotine-treated group compared to control group. Moreover, nicotine caused a significant decrease (P < 0.05) in the superoxide dismutase activity of the testes. No significant differences were observed in the reduced glutathione level in both of the testes and prostate of nicotine group compared with control group. Nicotine also induced histopathological alteration in the testes.

Methods: Mice (n = 48) were fed high-fat diet (HFD) for 25 weeks to induce obesity, after which half were maintained on HFD and half switched to low-fat diet (LFD)while they were given normal water (H2O) or 0.1% (w/v) SCE in water at week 0-4 which was increased to 1% (w/v) at week 5-9. Effects of treatment with SCE were compared between HFDH2O, HFDSCE, LFDH2O and LFDSCE groups. Respiratory exchange ratios (RER) were measured at weeks 0, 5 and 10. Food, water intake and body weight were measured weekly. Plasma lipid profile and organ weights were determined at week 10.

Results: SCE had significantly reduced RER at week 9 (P = 0.011). Food intake, body weight, and abdominal adipose tissue weight were not altered by SCE at weeks 5 and 10. However, significant increase in plasma and liver cholesterol (P < 0.050) was observed.