Trogonella foenum-graecum is a leguminous plant grown normally in various semiarid conditions of Asia and North Africa. There are several traditional purposes for this plant including medical purposes and use as a food flavor (Bin-Hafeez et al., 2003). The aim of this study was to investigate the blood responses of male white Wistar rats (body weight 180:t5 g) given the essential oil (EO) of this plant as intraperitonal injection. The essential oil was diluted with saline (1:10) and applied in a dosage of 100 mg EO per kg body weight once per day for 1, 3 and 7 days, respectively. In each injection protocol, 6 rats were injected with the EO and 6 rats with saline only giving a total of 36 animals. Rats were fed a standard diet (5% fat, 23.5% crude protein and approx. 60% carbohydrate) ad libitum and had free access to water. One day after each injection period, blood was taken from the retro-orbital plexus and sampled in heparinized tubes. Data were statistically analyzed using general linear models procedures of SAS software. The mean food intake of the experimental groups amounted to 17.1 g/d and no difference (P>0.05) among the groups were found. White blood cells (WBC), red blood cells (RBC), hematocrit (HCT) and haemoglobin (HB) were significantly (P<0.05) increased in groups given EO in comparison with those given saline only [WBC (x103/ml) : 16.6 vs. 7.6, RBC (x106/ml) : 8.22 vs. 7.57, HB (g/dl) : 15.67 vs. 14.47, HCT (%): 46.6 vs. 44.3]. In addition, rats injected with the EO for 7 days had significantly (P<0.05) higher numbers of blood cells compared with rats in 1 and 3 days injection protocols (WBC (x103/ml): 15.8, 16.09 and 16.53; RBC (x106/ml): 7.99, 8.2 and 8.49; HB (g/dl): 15.42, 15.6 and 16; HCT (%): 45.9, 46.8 and 47.2, respectively). The most important finding of the present study is a significant (P<0.05) increase of the WBC number in EO injected rats compared with the saline injected groups (16.6x103vs. 7.6x 103,per ml; combined data of all protocols). No significant response (P>0.05) was found for other blood plasma parameters including alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, bilirubin, glucose, cholesterol and triglyceride. The results of this study indicate that intraperitonal injection of Trogonella foenum-graecum EO could be effective in enhancing the number of blood cells.

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