Chia (Salvia hispanica L.) as a novel forage and feed source: A review

Abstract

Chia (Salvia hispanica L.), is a traditional pre-Colombian food crop from Central America. Being considered the richest botanical source of omega-3 fatty acids, it has recently been rediscovered as a functional food and feed. A growing body of literature indicates that dietary chia seeds greatly improve animal products quality without compromising growth, productivity and organoleptic quality. Chia is mainly cultivated as a seed crop but recently interest has been raised on biomass production as a potential forage source opening alleys toward the integration of chia in crop-livestock systems. Literature on chia is flourishing, up to now reviews addressed botany, agronomy phytochemical and medicinal uses, this article reviews the main findings on chia use in animal nutrition and includes an overview on both seed and biomass yield and quality as affected by environment, agronomy, and genetic background. Chia is a short-day flowering crop, seed yields of commercial varieties can be as high as 2999 kg ha–1 in areas of origin while at European latitudes seed production is severely hampered by photoperiod sensitivity (max 518 kg ha–1). The viable growing of chia for seeds worldwide relies on the availability of genotypes flowering at longer days than in the areas of origin, while for whole plant a relatively high forage yield can be expected. In southern Italy commercial short-day flowering varieties yielded up to 2.07 t ha–1 of leaf dry biomass and in Greece chia yielded up to 15 T ha−1 dry biomass. Chia seeds supplement in livestock diet are administered with the main objective to increase the content of omega-3 and improve animal health. The majority of work has been done on poultry and rabbits where rewarding results have been obtained in terms of improvement of products lipids profile. Only one work was published on pig but the first results are encouraging. Published data on ruminants are few but in agreement with findings on other species these works demonstrate chia has no adverse effects health performances, and sizeable improvement of milk fatty acid profile. A qualitative improvement of freshwater cultivated fish fillets was also obtained with a partial replacement of soybean oil with chia. Finally an innovative study tested the effect of total or partial replacement of wheat bran in the diets of two edible insects that can be considered the new frontier of food and feed production chains.

Fodder Yield, Quality and Growth of Chia (Salvia hispanica L.) as Affected by Sowing Density and Top-Dressing Nitrogen Fertilization

“…A maximum of above 60% ALA is the main FA, followed by linoleic acid. The percentage of ALA we found is in line with values reported in the literature as reviewed in Reference [9] and slightly lower than the values reported in Reference [29]. The omega-3 content of chia vegetative parts is remarkable compared to the average values reported for some common forage grasses and legumes [70] and higher than values reported for other omega-3-rich species such as birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus L.) and salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor Scop.)…”

“…Literature on the effects of agronomic practices on chia biomass production is quite scarce [29], especially regarding the effect of sowing density and fertilization [27,37]. This is partially due to the fact that chia is mainly grown as a seed crop, and only recently has interest in fodder production been raised [4,9,25]. The chia shoot biomass values found in our experiment are higher than the values obtained in northwestern Argentina [34] across different locations and seeding dates (between 0.49 and 4.67 t ha −1 ) and as affected by geographic location [35] (between 1.12 and 4.18 t ha −1 ).…”

Preliminary Observations About Forage Potential of Chia

“…Whole plant biomass yield of Chia has been reported to vary from 492 to 3675 kg ha -1 from northwestern Argentina, Ghana, Greece, northern Chile, and southern Italy. Jamshidi et al (2019) observed lack of published works on the use of Chia herbage in animal nutrition, however forage use of Chia vegetative parts was suggested by Peiretti and Gai (2009), who determined a whole panel of chemical analyses relevant for animal nutrition.…”

Proteomic Identification and Meta-Analysis in Salvia hispanica RNA-Seq de novo Assemblies

“…The cultivation of chia has recently expanded to nations around the world because the plant seeds are rich in dietary nutrients (fiber, antioxidants, minerals and vitamins, proteins, and unsaturated fatty acids) and phenolic compounds often associated with health benefits [ 2 ]. Apart from the nutritional value of the seeds, chia leaves and stems are a good source of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and other essential oils, which are used as feed additives in ruminant nutrition [ 3 , 4 ].…”