Effect of pennyroyal, savory and thyme essential oils on Japanese quail physiology

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to show the effects of different levels of pennyroyal, thyme and savory essential oils dietary supplementation on performance, organs weight, intestinal morphology, and serum lipids in quails. A total of 550 day-old Japanese quail chicks were allocated into 11 dietary treatments of 5 replications (10 birds in each cage) under a randomized experimental design. The treatments were a basal diet (Control), or 3 levels (200, 300, and 400 ppm) of thyme essential oil (TO), or 3 levels (200, 300, and 400 ppm) of savory essential oil (SO), or 3 levels (200, 300, and 400 ppm) of pennyroyal essential oil (PO) added separately to the basal diet, or also the basal diet supplemented with 100 ppm of flavophospholipol. Body weight gain (BWG), feed intake (FI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were measured weekly and calculated totally for 35 d. The organs weight and morphology of intestine parts of one bird from each cage were measured on 35 d. At the same day, blood samples were collected and cholesterol and triglyceride values were separately determined for male and female quails. Although the addition of different levels of essential oils in quail's diet did not affect BWG, a significant decline in FI was observed in the group supplemented with 400 ppm of TO. At the same time, FCR significantly improved (P < 0.05) in the same group as well as in the group supplemented with the antibiotic. However, the organs weight was not significantly affected by the experimental treatments. Nevertheless, villi height of duodenum, jejunum and ileum was significantly increased and crypt depth was significantly decreased in the quails fed diets supplemented with different levels of TO and SO. The values of serum triglycerides decreased in both sexes in the groups that received diets supplemented with different levels of essential oils whereas the values of cholesterol decreased only in males of the essential oils supplemented groups. From the present observations it can be concluded that thyme and savory essential oils can improve FCR by decreasing FI through boosting the absorption of nutrients in intestine. These plant essential oils can replace antibiotic growth parameters without having any adverse effect on quail's health with thyme essential oil exerting the most effective activity.

Independent and combined effects of Satureja khuzistanica essential oils and dietary acetic acid on fatty acid profile in thigh meat in male broiler chicken

“…Such beneficial effects are mainly attributed to the carvacrol antioxidant as well as anti-inflammatory effects ( Alagawany et al., 2015 , Lahmar et al., 2018 , Forte et al., 2018 ). Moreover, essential oils, such as SkEO, have shown to assist in improved digestive processes ( Lee et al., 2004 ), increased absorption of some nutrients ( Dehghani et al., 2018 ), and consequently enhanced growth and productive performance via modification and activation of gastrointestinal tract structure and function and to inhibit/prevent gut disorders ( Alagawany et al., 2015 ).…”

Phytochemical profile, Antioxidant, Enzyme inhibitory and acute toxicity activity of Astragalus bruguieri

“…In the last decades, researchers have linked phenolic compounds, viz. simple phenolic, phenolic acids, anthocyanin, and flavonoids of several plants with the plants, antioxidant potentials, which include free radicals scavenging, and reducing power activity [45][46][47] . Earlier studies also reported phenolic compounds as reducing agents, hydrogen givers, singlet oxygen inhibitors, and effective metal chelators because of their redox properties 5,14 .…”

Bioactive compounds, antibiotics and heavy metals: Effects on the intestinal structure and microbiome of monogastric animals – a non-systematic review

“…However, excessive dosage of thyme essential oil can deteriorate gut integrity, as shown by studies on laying hens (Placha et al, 2010). By contrast, thyme and savory essential oils affect the height of villi in the duodenum, jejunum and ileum, and reduce the depth of crypts, as demonstrated by studies on Japanese quails (Dehghani et al, 2018). Studies involving pigs revealed that a mix of thyme and peppermint essential oils and a plant extract of oregano had a positive effect on the microbiological profile of the large intestine, which was manifested by a significant increase in the count of probiotic bacteria (Ruzauskas et al, 2020).…”