2.3. Orchiectomy Procedure

The rats were divided into the following six groups, which were treated as indicated: sham/vehicle, BPH/vehicle, BPH/finasteride, and three CWW doses (50, 100, and 200 mg/kg). To prevent the influence of endogenous testosterone, rats in all the groups except the sham group underwent bilateral orchiectomy 3 days prior to testosterone treatment. For the orchiectomy, the animals were anesthetized by intraperitoneal injections of Zoletil 50 (Virbac, Nice, France). The sham group rats underwent the same procedure as those in the other groups except that their testicles were not removed. Rats in the BPH-induced groups were castrated. Briefly, the testes were exposed by transverse resecting of both scrota in the supine position. Then, the spermatic cord and blood vessels were ligated with 3-0 sutures and resected.