Abstract
This study was conducted to investigate the effects of Astragalus by-product (ABP) through dietary supplementation at different levels on performance, nutrient digestibility, rumen fermentation, blood metabolites, and immune response in sheep. Twenty-four Doper × Small Tail Han ewes (6-7 months of age; 29.07 ± 2.28 kg initial body weight) were randomly assigned to one of three treatments for a 47 d feeding period. Treatments consisted of the sheep diet supplemented with 0% ABP-control, 10% ABP, or 15% ABP of the diet (dry matter basis). Blood samples were collected on days 0, 15, 30, and 45 of the feeding period. APB supplementation did not affect growth performance and apparent digestibility of organic matter, crude protein, and acid detergent fibre (P > 0.05). However, ether extract digestibility was decreased in the 10% ABP group and increased in the 15% ABP group (P < 0.001), and both 10% ABP and 15% ABP decreased the neutral detergent fibre digestibility (P=0.005). Feeding ABP increased rumen pH (P < 0.001) and ammonia N (P < 0.001) and decreased concentrations of acetate (P=0.007) and propionate (P=0.001) which resultantly increased the acetate-to-propionate ratio (P < 0.001) in ruminal fluid. There were no interaction effects between treatment and sampling time for plasma metabolites and immunity (P > 0.05). However, inclusion of dietary 10% ABP decreased concentrations of plasma cholesterol (P=0.043). Also, plasma concentrations of low-density lipoprotein decreased on days 30 and 45 (P=0.017) of the feeding period. Metabolite concentrations of total protein, albumin, globulin, blood urea N, glucose, triglyceride, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and humoral immune indicators were not affected (P > 0.05) by dietary ABP supplementation. The results suggest that ABP could be reclaimed through dietary inclusion in animal feed since it had beneficial effects on rumen fermentation patterns and lipid metabolism and had no adverse effects on performance and humoral immunity in sheep.
Highlights
Astragalus membranaceus, known as Huangqi in Chinese and Radix Astragali in Latin, is a widely used immunomodulating herb mainly in traditional Chinese medicine. e root of A. membranaceus contains over 100 bioactive compounds prominent among which include polysaccharides, flavonoids, amino acids, and saponins [1, 2]
Several reports show that Astragalus by-products (ABP) still contains many nutrients such as crude protein, amino acids, crude fibre, crude fat, and lignin and includes abundant medicinal components such as terpenoids, alkaloids, and saponins [4]
ABP and dietary samples were analyzed for dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), and ether extract (EE) according to the method of the Association of Official Analytical Chemist [13], and acid detergent fibre (ADF) and neutral detergent fibre (NDF) according to the method described by Van Soest et al [14]
Summary
Astragalus membranaceus, known as Huangqi in Chinese and Radix Astragali in Latin, is a widely used immunomodulating herb mainly in traditional Chinese medicine. e root of A. membranaceus contains over 100 bioactive compounds prominent among which include polysaccharides, flavonoids, amino acids, and saponins [1, 2]. 0.111 0.096
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