Immune Responses and some Blood Metabolite Responses of Female Holstein Calves to Dietary Supplementationwith Licorice Root (Glycyrrhiza glabra)

Subject Areas : Camel

R. Sajjadi ¹ , A.A. Solati ² , M. Khodaei Motlagh ³ , M. Kazemi Bonchenari ⁴

1 - Department of animal science, Saveh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Saveh, Iran
2 - Department of animal science, Saveh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Saveh, Iran
3 - Department of animal science, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Arak University, Arak, Iran
4 - Department of animal science, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Arak University, Arak, Iran

Received: 2013-07-27 Accepted : 2013-10-30 Published : 2014-09-01

Keywords: blood metabolites, Holstein calf, immune responses, licorice,

Abstract :

Different medicinal plants have been used in animal and poultry nutrition in last decade. It seems that there are some potential to these medicinal plants to replace with common antibiotics. Licorice root (Glycyrrhiza glabra) is a medicinal plant that extensively was used in different studies. In the present study, the effect of dietary addition of licorice root on performance and blood energy indicator concentrations (glucose, non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA), beta hydroxyl butyrate (BHB) and immune responses parameters (total immunoglobulin (IG), IgG and IgA) was evaluated on female Holstein calves. The fourteen female Holstein calves with average body weight of 85.5 kg were subjected to two different treatments (seven animals per each treatment) in a completely randomized design. The control treatment was considered as C and supplemented treatment with licorice was considered as L. The study lasted ten weeks. Of which the first week was considered as adaptation period. Feed intake was measured daily and blood sample were collected twice throughout the experiment. The results show that average dry matter intake (DMI) was 1790 and 1860 g/d for treatments C and L, respectively (P>0.05). The NEFA was different significantly between treatments (P<0.05). The IgA concentration was not differed between treatments; however both total Ig and IgG concentrations were positively increased by licorice supplementation treatments (P<0.05). Total Ig concentration was 105.1 and 138.2 mg/dL for treatments C and L, respectively which shows that licorice addition caused to 31% increase in immunity responses compared to control treatment. In conclusion the results show that although licorice supplementation did not affect performance of animal, but it has potential to improve energy status in dairy calves' nutrition and also increased immune response of animal.

References:

Ahn G., Hwang I., Park E., Kim J., Jeon Y.J., Lee J., WooPark J., and Jee Y. (2008). Immunomodulatory effects of an enzymatic extract from Ecklonia cava on murine splenocytes. Marine Biotechnol. 10, 278-289.
Akamatsu H., Kumaro J., Asada Y. and Niwa Y. (1991). Mechanism of anti-inflammatory action of glycyrrhizin: effect on neutrophil functions including reactive oxygen species generation. Plan. Medica. 57, 119-121.
Allen M.S. (2000). Effects of diet on short-term regulation of feed intake by lactating dairy cattle. J. Dairy Sci. 83, 1598-1624.
AOAC. (2000). Official Methods of Analysis. Vol. I. 15^th ed. Association of Official Analytical Chemists,Arlington,VA.
Baker M.E. (1994). Licorice and enzymes other than 11 betahydroxysteroid dehydrogenase: an evolutionary perspective. Steroids. 59, 136-141.
Bernardi M.D., Intino P.E. and Trevisani F. (1994). Effects of prolonged ingestion of graded doses of licorice by healthy volunteers. Life Sci. 55, 863-872.
Brzezinska Slebodzinska E., Barwicka V. and Slebodzinski A.B. (1998). Growth hormone administration alters levels of antioxidative defense in erythrocytes and plasma. Pp 64-65 in Proc. 3^th Conf. Farm Anim. Endocrinology, Brusseis. BASE.
Chavali S.R., Francis T. and Campbell J.B. (1987). An in vitro study of immunomodulatory effects of some saponins. Int. J. Immunopharmacol. 9, 675-676.
Craig W.J. (1999). Health promoting properties of common herbs. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 70, 491-499.
Hatano T., Yasuhara T., Miyamoto K. and Okuda T. (1988). Anti-human immunodeficiency virus phenolics from licorice. Chem. Pharm. Bull. 36, 2286-2288.
Hidiroglou M., Batra T.R. and Ivan M. (1995). Effects of supplemental vitamin E and C on the immune responses of calves. J. Dariy Sci. 78, 1578-1583.
Katamaya M., Fukada T., Okamura T., Suzuki E., Tamura K., Shimizu Y., SudaY. and Suzuki K. (2011). Effect of dietary addition of seaweed and licorice on the immune performance of pigs. Anim. Sci. J. 82, 274-281.
Kim J.K., Oh S.M., Kwon H.S., Oh Y.S., Lim S.S. and Shin H.K. (2006). Anti-inflammatory effect of roasted licorice extracts on lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammatory responses in murine macrophages. Biochem. Biophysic. Res. Com. 345, 1215-1223.
Kim M.E., Kim H.K., Kim D.H., Yoon J.H. and Lee J.S. (2013). 18ß-Glycyrrhetinic acid from licorice root impairs dendritic cells maturation and Th1 immune responses. Immunopharmacol. Immunotoxical. 35, 329-35.
Kinoshita T., Tamura Y. and Mizutani K. (2005). The isolation and structure elucidation of minor isoflavonoids from licorice of Glycyrrhiza glabra origin. Chem. Pharm. Bull. 53, 847-849.
Latif S.A., Conca T.J. and Morris D.J. (1990). The effects of the licorice derivative, glycyrrhetinic acid, on hepatic 3 alpha and 3 betahydroxysteroid dehydrogenases and 5 alpha and 5 beta-reductase pathways of metabolism of aldosterone in male rats. Steroids. 55, 52-58.
Nassiri Asl M. and Hosseinzadeh H. (2008). Review of pharmacological effects of glycyrrhiza sp. and its bioactive compounds. Phytothe. Res. 22, 709-724.
Nara I.Z. (1984). The role of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) producing cells in clinical immunology. Chem. Abst. 35, 424.
Okda F.A., Yassein S., Ahmed A.R., Soufy H. and Nasr S.M. (2013). Some haematological and biochemical investigations on duck virus hepatitis following administration of glycyrrhizin.ISRN. Pharmacol. 2013, 1-10.
Pollock J.M., Rowan T.G., Dixon J.B. and Carter S.D. (1994). Level of nutrition and age at weaning: effects on humoral immunity in young calves. Br. J. Nutr. 71, 239-248.
SAS Institute. (2000). SAS/STAT User’s Guide, Version 8. SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC.
Shinada M., Azuma M., Sazaki H., Yoshida I., Suzutani T. and Sakuma T. (1986). Enhancement of interferon gamma production in glycyrrhizin-treated human peripheral lymphocytes in response to concanavalin A and to surface antigen of hepatitis B virus. Proc. Soc. Exp. Bio. Med. 181, 205-206.
Sun H.X. and Pan H.J. (2006). Immunological adjuvant effect of Glycyrrhiza uralensis saponins on the immune responses to ovalbumin in mice. Vaccine. 24, 1914-1920.
Suzuki K., Onodera W., Kumagai Y., Kachi T., Shimizu Y., Yoshino J., Suda Y. and Kobayashi J. (2009). Effects of dietary seaweed, b-glucan and yeast on immunity and growth traits in growing pigs. Japanese J. Zootech. Sci. 80, 27-34.
Ultee A., Slump R.A., Steging G. and Smid E.J. (2000). Antimicrobial activity of carvacrol toward B. Cereus on rice. J. Food Prod. 63, 620-624.
Utsunomiya T., Kobayashi M., Pollard R.B. and Suzuki F. (1997). Glycyrrhizin, an active component of licorice roots, reduces morbidity and mortality of mice infected with lethal doses of influenza virus. Antimicrob. Agent. Chemother. 41, 551-556.