Red and blue light are both vital factors for plant growth and development. We examined how different ratios of red light to blue light (R/B) provided by lightemitting diodes affected photosynthetic performance by investigating parameters related to photosynthesis, including leaf morphology, photosynthetic rate, chlorophyll fluorescence, stomatal development, light response curve, and nitrogen content. In this study, lettuce plants (Lactuca sativa L.) were exposed to 200 µmol·m −2 ·s −1 irradiance for a 16 h·d −1 photoperiod under the following six treatments: monochromatic red light (R), monochromatic blue light (B) and the mixture of R and B with different R/B ratios of 12, 8, 4, and 1. Leaf photosynthetic capacity (A max ) and photosynthetic rate (P n ) increased with decreasing R/B ratio until 1, associated with increased stomatal conductance, along with significant increase in stomatal density and slight decrease in stomatal size. P n and A max under B treatment had 7.6 and 11.8% reduction in comparison with those under R/B = 1 treatment, respectively. The effective quantum yield of PSII and the efficiency of excitation captured by open PSII center were also significantly lower under B treatment than those under the other treatments. However, shoot dry weight increased with increasing R/B ratio with the greatest value under R/B = 12 treatment. The increase of shoot dry weight was mainly caused by increasing leaf area and leaf number, but no significant difference was observed between R and R/B = 12 treatments. Based on the above results, we conclude that quantitative B could promote photosynthetic performance or growth by stimulating morphological and physiological responses, yet there was no positive correlation between P n and shoot dry weight accumulation.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation with Moringa oleifera leaf (MOL) on performance, carcass characteristics, meat quality, and oxidative stability of breast muscle in broilers. A total of 720 1-d-old male Arbor Acres birds were randomly divided into 6 dietary groups, which were fed a basal diet supplemented with 0, 1, 2, 5, 10, and 15% MOL, respectively. Each group had 6 replicates of 20 birds each. The feeding trial lasted for 42 d. The results showed dietary MOL supplementation linearly and quadratically decreased body weight and average daily gain (P < 0.01), and increased feed conversion ratio (P < 0.001). Abdominal fat decreased linearly and quadratically in response to the supplementation of MOL in diets, both on d 21 and 42 (P < 0.001). In breast muscle, dietary supplementation with MOL quadratically increased the contents of C18:2, C18:3n-3, C20:4, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), n-3 PUFA, n-6 PUFA (P < 0.01), and decreased thrombogenic index (TI; P = 0.019). Dietary inclusion of MOL improved meat color, evidenced by quadratically reduced b* (yellowness) values (45 min postmortem, P = 0.001; 24 h postmortem, P = 0.018) and increased a* (redness) values (24 h postmortem, P < 0.001). Besides, diets supplemented with MOL quadratically decreased malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in breast muscle during storage (P < 0.001). Plasma total anti-oxidative capacity, total superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase activities increased quadratically (P < 0.01), whereas MDA decreased quadratically (P < 0.001), in response to dietary MOL supplementation. In summary, MOL could be used as a feed ingredient for broilers to improve PUFA contents, oxidative stability, color of breast muscle, and abdominal fat without adverse effects on growth performance, with an inclusion of 1.56% in the diets.
This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of supplementary Moringa oleifera leaf (MOL) on performance, egg quality, plasma parameters and organ histopathological indices of layers. A total of 360 27-week-old Hy-Line Grey commercial layers were randomly allotted to four groups. Each group consisted of six replicates with 15 birds and 3 birds were placed in one cage. The control group was fed a corn-soybean meal based diet and the experimental groups were fed on control diet supplemented with 5%, 10% or 15% MOL (MOL5, MOL10 and MOL15 group). The experiment lasted for 8 weeks. No significant differences were observed in egg weight or feed intake among all groups (p > .05). The birds in MOL15 group had higher feed conversation ratio and lower egg production compared with those in control group (p < .05). Layers in MOL5 had a deeper yolk colour than those in control group (p < .05). The albumen height and Haugh unit increased with increasing level of MOL when eggs were stored at 4 C and 28 C for 4 weeks (p < .05). Layers in MOL15 group had higher aspartate aminotransferase activity and lower uric acid concentration than other groups (p < .05). Layers in MOL10 and MOL15 groups had higher malondialdehyde content than those in control group (p < .05). Supplementary MOL increased the activity of glutathione peroxidase (p < .05). In conclusion, dietary supplementation with 5% MOL could improve yolk colour value and protein absorption without adverse effects on laying performance and egg quality. ARTICLE HISTORY
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