Supplementation of Rosemary extract in the diet of Nero Siciliano pigs: evaluation of the antioxidant properties on meat quality

Abstract

In the present study, the effect of Rosmarinus officinalis L. dietary supplementation on meat quality and oxidative stability of Nero Siciliano pigs was examined. During the growing-fattening period, 32 Nero Siciliano pigs were allotted into two treatment groups consisting of 8 replicates with 2 pigs per pen. For 90 days, the animals received a basal diet: one group (CTR) was not dietary supplemented, whereas the other group received (1 g/kg) rosemary extract (ROX). Supplementation with rosemary extract significantly improved the polyunsaturated fatty acid content of the meat, which showed higher values in the meat of the ROX group compared with the CTR group (P < 0.001); in detail, values for 18:2n-6 (P = 0.001), 20:4n-6 (P = 0.001), 22:6n-3 (P = 0.012) and PUFA/SFA ratio (P = 0.004) appeared to increase in the dietary supplemented group. On the other hand, atherogenic and thrombogenic indexes showed slight differences among the groups (IA: P = 0.079; IT: P = 0.084). Dietary supplementation with R. officinalis L. was not effective in protecting meat from oxidative deterioration, considering that the lipid oxidation, measured in meat across 5 days of refrigerated storage in darkness, progressed similarly in both the groups during storage (P > 0.05). Color measurement performed in the present study on meat samples from the two dietary treatments showed that redness decreased (P = 0.046) and hue values increased (P = 0.036), indicating that a deterioration of the initial color occurred and that the rosemary extract was ineffective in preventing color deterioration. Nevertheless, the lightness, yellowness and chroma color descriptors showed similar values in relation to dietary treatment (P > 0.05). Considering the nutritional value of meat as an important contributor to the overall quality, the results obtained in this study support the possibility of the dietary supplementation with R. officinalis L. extract in pigs as a functional additive in livestock feeding.

Effects of dietary ramie powder at various levels on growth performance, antioxidative capacity and fatty acid profile of finishing pigs

“…From the health point of view, although a higher polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA)/saturated fatty acids (SFA) ratio in pork is desirable, the pork become more prone to oxidation and leading to deterioration of flavour (Guo et al, ). Several studies confirmed that improvement of antioxidative capacity has beneficial effects on meat shelf life and pork quality (Liotta, Chiofalo, & D'alessandro, Presti & Chiofalo, ; Lu et al, ; Ma, Lin, et al, ; Zhang et al, ). Ramie may be an alternative and healthy ingredient with good palatability and nutrition for swine diet (Kipriotis et al, ), but it is underutilized at the present.…”

Sicilian Black Pig: An Overview

“…Studies available in the literature and considered in this manuscript indicate that the age at slaughter for the SB breed ranges from 169 to 730 days of age [32][33][34][35][36], with a live body weight from 62 to 121 kg [37][38][39][40][41]. According to the SEUROP classification (classification of carcasses defined by the European Union) [42], the yield of dressing was about 80%, and lean meat content ranged from 39.7% to 59.0% [38][39][40][41]. In addition, the BFT value measured was 52 mm at the withers, from 17 to 49 mm at the last rib, and from 30 to 49 mm above the gluteus medius muscle [32,33,35,40].…”

In Vivo Performances, Carcass Traits, and Meat Quality of Pigs Fed Olive Cake Processing Waste

“…The chemical characteristics of olive cake, totally pitted, used in the trial were determined according to AOAC methods [22], and the fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) were analyzed by GC-FID, following the procedure described below [23]. The analysis of each parameter was replicated three times for each by-product, and the results were reported as a mean of the three replications (Table 1).…”

“…Table 3 shows the nutritional characteristics and energy content of the diets. Samples of the dietary treatments were analyzed to determine the chemical composition [22] and the fatty acid profile (Table 4), following the procedure described below [23]. Each parameter was analyzed three times for each dietary treatment; Tables 3 and 4 show the mean values of the three analyses.…”

“…For the chromatographic analyses, on 15 mg of lipids, extracted using a solution of chloroform/methanol (2:1, v/v) from each sample of IMF and BF [27], the fatty acids methyl esters were prepared [28] by using a solution of sulfuric acid/methanol (1:9, v/v) and submitted to HRGC analysis, [23] with an FID detector (Agilent Technologies 6890 N, Palo Alto, CA, USA) equipped with an Omegawax 250 column (Supelco, Bellefonte, PA, USA; 30 m × 0.25 mm i.d., 0.25 µm film thickness). The concentration of each fatty acid was expressed as g/100 g, considering 100 g the sum of the areas of identified FAMEs.…”