Magnolol Protects Human Sperm Motility Against Lipid Peroxidation: A Sperm Head Fixation Method

Abstract
It was previously reported that magnolol, isolated from the Chinese medicinal herb Magnolia officinalis, had a potent inhibitory activity on lipid peroxidation. Since sperm motility could be suppressed by lipid peroxidation, this study examines the protective effect of magnolol on lipid peroxidation-sup-pressed sperm motility. FeSO4 was used to induced lipid peroxidation and sperm motility was expressed as tail beat frequency (TBF) measured with a sperm head fixation method. Magnolol at 10−9 to 10−7 M significantly reversed the FeSO4 -suppressed TBF. Magnolol significantly inhibited the generation of malondialdehyde (MDA), the end product of lipid peroxidation, in sperm. Magnolol protected sperm motility by inhibiting lipid peroxidation in sperm.