Abstract
Reducing the use of antibiotics in livestock in order to contain antibiotic resistance and studying natural substance additives are key to sustainability. Among the various biological activities of plant extracts, antioxidant activity plays an important role. The present study assesses the total antioxidant activity and antioxidant reserves using the Kit Radicaux Libres test (KRL™ Kirial International, Couternon, France). One hundred and sixty piglets (Topics × Tempo) weaned at 28 days of age were divided into four dietary treatment groups that were fed a commercial diet (the control group, C); 500 mg/kg Boswellia extract (BOS); 200 and 50 mg/kg Uncaria and Tanacetum extracts (UT) respectively; and 225 mg/kg of an antioxidant plant extract mixture (AOX). The blood antioxidant activity of the piglets was measured using the KRL test and the reserves were analyzed on whole blood samples after hydrolysis with glucosidase, sulfatase and glucuronidase. No significant differences were observed in growth performance. The delta KRL values of the whole blood showed a significantly higher total antioxidant status of the piglets from the BOS and AOX groups than the UT and C groups (+30.7 BOS; +27.7 AOX vs. +17.81 UT +13.30 C; p = 0.002) between 18 and 28 days post-weaning. The delta KRL values of red blood cells (RBCs) showed a significantly higher total antioxidant status of the piglets from the AOX groups than the UT and BOS groups (+22.2 AOX; vs. +9.90 UT +9.4 BOS; p = 0.016) between the two sampling times. Reserves of UT and AOX were higher than C and BOS for all enzymes, glucosides, sulphates, and glucuronides. The biological KRL test proved to be an extremely sensitive tool to evaluate the piglets’ antioxidant status. Determining the antioxidant reserve also provides a better understanding of the real antioxidant status of pigs.
Highlights
Natural extracts are used in animal nutrition as sustainable additives to improve growth performance and health [1,2]
Low antioxidant activity was observed for the B. serrata extract and for the U. tomentosa and T. parthenium mixture (15.43 vs. 46.72 eq Trolox/100 g of product, respectively)
In a previous work [19], we reported that long-term dietary supplementation from weaning to slaughter with Verbenaceae extract, containing polyphenols, tended to improve the whole blood KRL value of pigs
Summary
Natural extracts are used in animal nutrition as sustainable additives to improve growth performance and health [1,2]. The bioactive compounds of wild plants have shown great promise for enhancing animal production due to their numerous biological activities that provide health benefits to animals [4,5]. The bioavailability of polyphenols, measured as molecules absorbed in the small intestine, varies from 5% to 10% as observed by Faria et al [9], due to their chemical structure such as esters, glycosides or polymers, and their association with cell wall constituents such as arabinoxylans, proteins, Antioxidants 2021, 10, 702. Dietary polyphenols are modified during absorption via hydrophilic conjugation (i.e., they are methylated, glucuronidated and sulphated), in the small intestine and later in the liver. Conjugation mechanisms are highly efficient, and aglycones are generally either absent or present in low concentrations in blood [6]
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