Abstract
Nutraceuticals are defined as livestock feeds that combine their nutritional value with their beneficial effects on animal health. We analyzed the outcomes from nearly 20 years of research assessing the nutraceutical properties of plants consumed by sheep and goats in low deciduous forests. A systematic review of different databases suggested 31 peer-reviewed manuscripts according to pre-established criteria. Amongst these, 16 manuscripts described in vitro evaluations investigating the bioactivity of plant secondary compounds in the extracts of 12 plant species. Most of these studies used the abomasal nematode Haemonchus contortus as the parasite model. Meanwhile, 11 manuscripts reported in vivo trials under controlled pen conditions, evaluating the relationships between the intake of leaves from different plant species and their secondary compounds and animal nutrition, performance, and gastrointestinal nematode infections. Additionally, four manuscripts described studies under natural feeding conditions. Altogether, the studies showed the inherent complexity of the relationship between small ruminants, plants, nutrients, secondary compounds, and gastrointestinal nematodes in natural feeding systems. Several plant species can be considered good candidates for nutraceutical use. Our findings warrant future work to understand the relationship between plants, ruminants, and their parasites, with the aim to improve the sustainability of production systems based on the native vegetation of tropical forests.
Highlights
Plant secondary compounds (PSCs) and gastrointestinal nematodes (GINs) are unavoidable components of the LDF ecosystem, as they mediate its interactions with herbivores [16,17,18]
We focused on the anthelmintic effects of PSCs because GIN infections are a common feature in grazing ruminant production systems [34,35]
We present a systematic review on the efforts to evaluate both in vitro and in vivo nutraceutical feed resources from such a heterogeneous vegetation scenario, with the aim to encourage future research that deepens our knowledge of the relationships between small ruminants, their GINs, plants’ nutrients, and PSCs, contributing to the revalorization of native vegetation systems
Summary
Agronomy 2021, 11, 1403 on the development of methodologies capable of identifying both the nutritional and pharmaceutical properties of a given resource. These two aspects are not the only ones associated with animal performance in complex production systems. The PSCs play a vital role in plant defense and provide plasticity that allows for the interactions of the plants with their environment [19,20,21] They are broadly categorized into three functional groups: (i) alkaloids, with up to 20,000 reported molecules [22], (ii) terpenes, with up to 80,000 molecules [23], and (iii) phenolic compounds, with up to 8000 molecules [24].
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