Five kind of magical seeds

Tiejun Tang

Wuzi Yanzong Wan (WZYZW) is a kind of traditional Chinese medicine patent pill. It originated from Tang Dynasty. It has been used as the first choice for male infertility treatment for more the one thousand years. In Chinese “Wuzi” has two means. It means five seeds and also means five sons. “Yanzong” means reproduction and “Wan” means pill. The ingredients and function of this pill all showed in its name.

The 5 ingredients of WZYZW are 5 kinds of seeds. They are Tusizi, Gouqizi, Fupenzi, Wuweizi, Cheqianzi. In recent few decades it has been found that this pill not only used to treat male infertility bur also can be used to treat female reproductive system diseases. It can regulate many hormone levels which related to fertility function. It can increase the success rate of IVF treatment and regulate women's menopausal symptoms.

Why these five kinds of seeds have so magical effect on fertility treatment? Some researchers did a lot of scientific researches to find out the mysteries behind.

Zou D use Ultra-Performance LC coupled with ESI-linear ion trap-Orbitrap tandem mass spectrometry technique analysed chemical constituents of WZYZW. 106 compounds were found in these 5 seeds, including organic acids, flavonoids, phenylpropanoids, alkaloids and terpenoids. ^[1]

Ji HJ reported oral administration of WZYZW for 3 weeks, it can significantly increased testes weight, sperm quantity and motility, and reduce testicular damage. Meanwhile, WZYZW treatment significantly reversed the reduction of serum testosterone, and decreased testes malondialdehyde and oxidative stress index relative to the radiated mice.  It also effectively prevented the down regulation of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) expression in testes induced by x-ray irradiation.^[2]

Xu YP use WZYZW on the spermatogenesis and specific secretory functions of sertoli cells in rat model and to investigate the underlying mechanism. Serum levels of follicle-stimulating hormone inhibit B and testosterone was evaluated using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Androgen-binding protein gene expression and transferrin protein expression in testis tissue specimens of all rats were determined using RT-PCR and Western blotting analysis, respectively. Histopathological alterations in the testis were determined using Johnsen's score. The research found WZYZW can increase the specific secretory functions of sertoli cells. Furthermore, serum testosterone level and Johnsen's score of the testis increased greatly compared with the model group. ^[3]

Yang Z applied molecular biology technique to detect WZYZW. The results showed this pill can restore testicular structure and significantly increased the histology score in the oligoasthenozoo spermic rats. In addition, it also significantly increased the serum levels of gonadotropin release hormone, luteinizing hormone, estradiol, and testosterone and decreased that of follicle-stimulating hormone. ^[4]

A latest research use WZYZW to treat non-obstructive oligoasthenozoospermia (NOA). In this study, both plasma and urine metabolomics profiling was first analysed to explore the therapeutic mechanisms of WZYZW on NOA rats induced by removal of the unilateral testicle. Then, 106 identified compounds comprising WZYZW, for which putative targets were discovered using systems pharmacology, were systematically analysed via mRNA microarrays to validate their putative targets. The results suggested that WZYZW plays key roles in modulating the concentrations of 18 metabolites in the metabolism of amino acids, lipids and so on, normalizing the metabolic phenotype and regulating metabolic disorders. Moreover, 27 targets of WZYZW (23 compounds) against NOA were validated, and metabolomics-tested metabolites were also found to be significantly related to these identified targets. ^[5]

Above research reports provide a strong scientific evidence of WZYZW. This magic pill should be a good choice for the infertility treatment of male and female. 

Reference: 

1. Zou D.  Analysis of Chemical Constituents in Wuzi-Yanzong-Wan by UPLC-ESI-LTQ-Orbitrap-MS. Molecules. 2015; 20 (12):21373-404.
2. Ji HJ. Wuzi Yanzong pill, a Chinese polyherbal formula, alleviates testicular damage in mice induced by ionizing radiation. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2016; 16(1):509.
3. Xu YP. A Chinese herbal formula, Wuzi Yanzong pill, improves spermatogenesis by modulating the secretory function of Sertoli cells. Chin J Integr Med. 2014; 20(3):194-9.
4. Yang Z. Effect of Wuzi Yanzong on Reproductive Hormones and TGF-β1/Smads Signal Pathway in Rats with Oligoasthenozoospermia. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2019 Apr 16;2019:7628125.
5. Zou D. Analysis of pharmacological mechanisms and targets mining of Wuzi-Yanzong-Wan for treating non-obstructive oligoasthenospermia. Biomed Pharmacother. 2019 Jul;115:108898. doi: 10.1016/j.biopha.2019.108898.