Effect of Echinacea purpurea, Thymus persicus and Peppermint extract on performance, carcass characteristics, blood factors and immune system of Japanese quail

Subject Areas : Developmental biology of plants and animals , development and differentiation in microorganisms

mehdi moradi jegarlooyi ¹ , Hossein Reaz Shahbazi ² , Forogh mohammadi ³

1 - Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Kermanshah Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kermanshah, Iran
2 - Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Kermanshah Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kermanshah, Iran
3 - Department of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Agriculture, Kermanshah Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kermanshah, Iran

Received: 2022-04-20 Accepted : 2023-01-01 Published : 2023-02-20

Keywords: performance, carcass, Peppermint, immune response,

Abstract :

This experiment was performed to evaluate the use of extracts of Echinacea, Thyme and Peppermint on performance, carcass characteristics, blood factors and immune system of Japanese quail. One-day Japanese quail chicks were divided into 5 treatment groups based on a completely randomized design. Each treatment had 4 replications and each replication included 10 chickens. Experimental treatments are: 1) control (basic diet-without additives), 2) basic diet + 0.2% of Echinacea extract, 3) basic diet + 0.2% of thyme extract, 4) basic diet + 0.2% of peppermint extract and 5) Basal diet + 0.2% Echinacea extract + 0.2% Thyme extract + 0.2% Peppermint extract. Weight gain, live weight and conversion coefficient improved significantly by adding medicinal plant extracts to the diet (P<0.05). Carcass percentage in treatments containing Echinacea, peppermint as well as a mixture of Echinacea, thyme and peppermint had a significant increase with the control (P<0.05). There was a significant decrease in Abdominal fat in all experimental treatments with control (P<0.05). With the addition of medicinal plant extracts, the concentrations of total protein, uric acid and cholesterol were significantly reduced (P<0.05). Medicinal plant extracts had no significant effect on the concentration of liver enzymes and immune system of quails (P>0.05). In general, the results showed that the application of a mixture of herbal extracts of Echinacea, Thyme and Peppermint in the diet of Japanese quail can have a higher efficiency on growth performance than the separate application of each of them.