Hempseed Products Fed to Hens Effectively Increased n‐3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Total Lipids, Triacylglycerol and Phospholipid of Egg Yolk

Abstract

Hempseed products represent potential alternative feed ingredients for poultry. However, their usage is not currently approved due to a lack of data to support their safety and efficacy. In this regard, the current study was conducted to assess the impact of dietary concentration of hempseed (HS) products and duration of their feeding to hens on the polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) composition of egg yolk lipids. In the current study, 48 Lohmann LSL‐Classic hens were individually housed in metabolism cages, in a completely randomized design, and provided one of six diets (wheat‐barley‐soybean‐based) containing either HS (10, 20 and 30 %), hempseed oil (HO; 4.5 and 9.0 %) or no hempseed product (control) over 12 weeks. Increasing alpha‐linolenic acid (ALA) intake via increasing dietary hempseed product inclusion, significantly (p < 0.0001) increased the n‐3 PUFA contents of yolk total lipid. The values of ALA increased by 12‐fold (152 ± 3.56 and 156 ± 2.42 mg/yolk) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) by twofold to threefold (41.3 ± 1.57 and 43.6 ± 1.61 mg/yolk) over the control, for the highest levels of HS and HO inclusion, respectively. Increasing levels of hemp products in laying hen diets proved effective in manipulating the fatty acid profile of the total lipid, triacylglycerol (TAG) and total phospholipid (PL) fractions of yolks, enhancing the n‐3 fatty acids and reducing the n‐6/n‐3 ratio. The latter benefit was achieved within 4 weeks of feeding hens either HS‐ or HO‐containing diets.

Fatty acids profile and oxidative stability of eggs from laying hens fed diets containing hemp seed or hempseed cake

“…The inclusion of hemp seed or hempseed cake dramatically reduced the LA : ALA ratio in egg yolks from 27.8 : 1 in the control diet to 4.6 -6.4 : 1 in the HS and HC diets (see Table 4). This is due to the high amount of ALA in hemp seed and hempseed cake, consistent with the findings of previous studies which showed a reduced LA : ALA ratio in eggs from hens consuming diets containing hemp seed (Gakhar et al, 2012;Raza et al, 2016) or hempseed oil (Neijat et al, 2016).…”

Improving the fatty acid profile in egg yolk through the use of hempseed (<i>Cannabis sativa</i>), ginger (<i>Zingiber officinale</i>), and turmeric (<i>Curcuma longa</i>) in the diet of Hy-Line White Leghorns

“…Contrary to the potential of industrial hempseed, its use in the poultry diet is not recommended due to a lack of scientific evidence to support nutritional efficacy (Gakhar et al, 2012). Previous reports have shown that the addition of hempseed can potentially generate n-3-enriched eggs (Silversides and Lefrançois, 2005;Gakhar et al, 2012;Neijat et al, 2015). In the present study, the results are encouraging since the profile of fatty acids improved significantly.…”

“…Classic eggs typically contain a low level of the n-3 PUFA and therefore contribute little to meeting the daily recommended intake (Neijat et al, 2015). The fatty acid profile of egg yolk could be altered by adding natural sources of n-3 PUFA into the diet of the hen (Baucells et al, 2000).…”

“…Because of inadequate ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid intake in the human diet, research work has been focused on producing animal food products enriched with a healthy fatty acid profile (Cherian, 2002;Kang, 2008). Among the various animal food stuffs evaluated for ω-3 fatty acid enhancement, hen egg has been reported as the easiest and the most successful means of adding ω-3 fatty acid to the human diet (Leskanich and Noble, 1997;Baucells et al, 2000;Cherian et al, 2007;Neijat et al, 2015). Different materials originating from plants, such as flaxseed, chia, and hempseed (Cherian and Sim, 1991;Ayerza and Coates, 1999;Gakhar et al, 2012;Neijat et al, 2015), and various full-fat seeds (Mazalli et al, 2004) are extremely successful in improving the fatty acid profile in eggs.…”

Effects of feeding broiler breeder hens a coextruded full-fat flaxseed and pulses mixture without or with multienzyme supplement

“…Owing to the widely understood competition between ALA and LA for the same desaturase enzymes, FA deposition is directly related to the relative ratios of n-6:n-3 in the diet ( Brenner, 1971 , Neijat et al., 2016a ). The reduced ratio between n-6:n-3 has been reported to enhance the deposition of ALA as well as reduced efficiency of endogenous conversion of ALA to EPA ( Neijat et al., 2016a , Neijat et al., 2016b ) The n-6:n-3 ratio in the FA composition of the egg yolk was reflective of the diet composition, where the control egg yolks had a significantly higher n-6:n-3 ratio. Furthermore, owing to this reduced ratio and subsequent competition for enzymes, the conversion of ALA to DHA was higher in birds fed the experimental diets ( P < 0.001).…”