The value of plant extracts with antioxidant activity in attenuating coccidiosis in broiler chickens

Abstract

Coccidiosis remains one of the most important diseases in the poultry industry and results in the annual loss of millions of US dollars by the poultry industry. In South Africa and other developing countries where a large percentage of the population is unemployed, cheap food production is necessary. If the control of the coccidian parasite could be made more economical, these savings could be passed on to the consumer. In Europe, where the economics are different, people are becoming more aware of the potential dangers of using antimicrobials in producing animal protein. A solution to both these problems could be the use of plant products that function by mechanisms other than those of chemotherapeutics, with the additional advantage of a natural origin. Antioxidant compounds could hold promise for the control of Eimeria infections due to the association of coccidial infection with lipid peroxidation of the intestinal mucosa. Four plant extracts with antioxidant activity were screened for their anticoccidial activity in vivo with toltrazuril as the positive control. Combretum woodii (160 mg/kg) proved to be extremely toxic to the birds, while treatment with Tulbaghia violacea (35 mg/kg), Vitis vinifera (75 mg/kg) and Artemisia afra (150 mg/kg) resulted in feed conversion ratios similar to toltrazuril, and higher than the untreated control. T. violacea also significantly decreased the oocyst production in the birds. From this study we conclude that antioxidant-rich plant extracts have potential benefits in treating coccidial infections. The promising results obtained with T. violacea justify further studies on the potential value of the plant as a therapeutic or prophylactic anticoccidial agent.

Polarity of extracts and fractions of four Combretum (Combretaceae) species used to treat infections and gastrointestinal disorders in southern African traditional medicine has a major effect on different relevant in vitro activities

“…Leaves Leprosy, ophthalmic remedy, and blood purification (Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk, 1962;Suleiman et al, 2010) Antimicrobial (Suleiman et al, 2010) apigenin C. woodii Dümmer Leaves C. woodii is used interchangeably with C. erythrophyllum (Eloff et al, 2005a) for treating abdominal pains and venereal diseases anti-inflammatory, anthelminthic and antischistosomal (McGaw et al, 2001); antifungal (Masoko et al, 2007); antibacterial (Eloff et al, 2005a and b); anti coccidiosis (Naidoo et al, 2008) 2',3',4-trihydroxyl-3,5,4'-trimethoxyl bibenzyl (combretastatin B5) (Eloff et al, 2005b) polar compounds. We then determined the antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory activities of phenolic-enriched crude extracts and fractions of varying polarity of four Combretum species indigenous to South Africa (Table 1).…”

“…These results are important because they show that there are risks of toxicity with an inappropriate use of some of these extracts as therapeutics for any ailments. C. woodii extracts are toxic to poultry in an in vivo anticoccidial test at a concentration of 160 mg/kg (Naidoo et al, 2008). Furthermore, several cytotoxic and anti-tumour derivatives of stilbenoids (Fyhrquist, 2007) such as combretastatin A and combretastatin B5 (LC 50 value of 10 μg/ml) have been isolated from the genus Combretum.…”

“…Several species of Combretum are used in traditional medicine for treating various kinds of diseases by many communities across Africa . Phytochemical studies of a number of Combretum species have led to isolation of triterpenoids, stilbenoids and flavonoids with different pharmacological activities such as antimicrobial (Eloff, 1999), antiinflammatory (Angeh et al, 2007), anticarcinogenic (Pettit et al, 1988), and antioxidative activity (Aderogba et al, 2011).To validate the ethnomedicinal use of some Combretum and their closely related species used for treating infectious and GIT disorders, we used a solvent system different from conventional non-polar that would break cellular membranes and extract highly polar compounds as well as non- antimalaria (Gathirwa et al, 2011;Nguta et al, 2010) anti-inflammatory, anthelminthic and antischistosomal (McGaw et al, 2001), antifungal (Masoko et al., 2007; antibacterial (Angeh et al, 2007) 1α,23β-dihydroxy-12-oleanen-29-oic-acid-23β-O-α-4-acetylrhamnopyranoside, 1,22-dihydroxy-12-oleanen-30-oic acid, 24-ethylcholesta-7,22,25- (Eloff et al, 2005a) for treating abdominal pains and venereal diseases anti-inflammatory, anthelminthic and antischistosomal (McGaw et al, 2001); antifungal (Masoko et al., 2007); antibacterial (Eloff et al, 2005a and b); anti coccidiosis (Naidoo et al, 2008) 2 ',3',4-trihydroxyl-3,5,4'-trimethoxyl bibenzyl (combretastatin B5) (Eloff et al, 2005b) polar compounds. We then determined the antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory activities of phenolic-enriched crude extracts and fractions of varying polarity of four Combretum species indigenous to South Africa (Table 1).…”

Effect of Tulbaghia violacea on the blood pressure and heart rate in male spontaneously hypertensive Wistar rats

“…violacea has also been reported to have anticoagulant (Bungu et al, 2008), antithrombotic (Bungu et al, 2008) and antioxidant (Naidoo et al, 2008) properties. These properties are equally beneficial towards the prevention and treatment of HTN and other CVDs.…”

Desempenho produtivo e microbiota intestinal de frangos de corte suplementados com ß-ácidos do lúpulo (Humulus lupulus) após desafio com Eimeria acervulina e E. tenella

“…Entre estes mecanimos tem-se a barreira epitelial mucosa, fagócitos e outros leucócitos, citocinas e componentes do sistema complemento (YUN et al, 2000). Todavia, o principal meio de controle da doença é através do uso de drogas anticoccidianas, associada com vacinas vivas atenuadas (VELKERS et al, 2010 GIANNENAS et al, 2003;NAIDOO et al, 2008;LEE et al, 2011;ALMEIDA et al, 2012;KIM et al, 2013 O produto utilizado contendo o β-ácido possui concentração de 30%, ou seja, para obter a dosagem de β-ácido especificado utilizou-se 100, 200, 400 e 800 mg/kg do produto para os tratamentos 3, 4, 5 e 6, respectivamente. As concentrações totais de β-ácido detectado nas dietas experimentais estão apresentadas na Tabela 2.…”