Short communication. Effects of purslane extract on performance, immunity responses and cecal microbial population of broiler chickens

Abstract

The aim of present study was to evaluate the effect of purslane extract on performance, cecal microflora composition and immune responses of broiler chickens. One hundred and ninety two 1–day old broiler chicks (Ross 308) were allocated randomly in 4 groups with 4 replicates to receive diets supplemented with 0 (control), 100, 200 and 300 ppm of purslane extract for 42 days. Body weight gain, feed intake (FI) and feed conversion ratio were measured weekly and calculated for starter (1-21 d), grower (22-42 d) and overall periods (1-42 d). All diets were isocaloric, isonitrogenous and provided ad libitum. Antibody response against sheep red blood cell (SRBC) was measured on d-28 and d-42. At the age of 42 d, eight chicks per treatment killed aseptically for enumeration of cecal bacteria. The results of this experiment indicated that FI increased significantly with inclusion of purslane extract in grower and overall period (p≤0.05). Purslane extract did not affect coliform and Escherichia coli populations but increased Lactobacillus population of cecal content significantly (p≤0.05). There were no significant differences in primary and secondary antibody titer against SRBC and no differences among the treatments for relative weight of thymus and spleen (p>0.05). Relative weight of bursa was affected with inclusion of purslane extract in the diet. Therefore, it was concluded that purslane inclusion had a positive significant effect on cecal microflora composition, but had no effect on immune response of broiler chickens.

Impacts of Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) extract supplementation on growing Japanese quails' growth, carcass traits, blood indices, nutrients digestibility and gut microbiota

“…A significant appositive effect on antioxidants (SOD, TAC, GSH, and CAT) is a good indicator for birds' healthy status due to antioxidants status improvement. These findings follow the results of many researchers who stated that purslane inclusion in the diet has hypolipidemic properties ( Movahedian et al, 2007 ) and can improve broiler chicken antioxidant status ( Ghorbani et al, 2013 ; Habibian et al, 2019 ).…”

Effects of orange essential oil on intestinal microflora in mice

“…36 The positive effect of plant extract on Lactobacillus has been reported previously. Ghorbani et al 37 found that purslane extract significantly increased the Lactobacillus population of cecal content. Zhang et al 38 also found that the Zanthoxylum bungeanum pericarp could increase the levels of commensal bacteria containing Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium in the feces of mice.…”

The effect of purslane hydroextract and zinc on performance, antioxidant capacity and immunity of broiler chickens during summer conditions

“…However, they reported the effect of purslane powder or PHE in the thermoneutral housing systems. Supplementation of broiler diets with purslane extract improved feed consumption and daily body weight gain in broiler chickens (Zhao et al, 2013;Ghorbani et al, 2014). Lee et al (2003) suggested that improved digestibility and availability of feedstuff nutrients Abbreviations: BHT, butylated hydroxytoluene; Zn, zinc; PHE300, purslane hydroextract 300 mg kg −1 of diet; PHE600, Purslane hydroextract 600 mg kg −1 of diet; ZPHE300, zinc 100 mg kg −1 diet + purslane hydroextract 300 mg kg −1 of diet; ZPHE600, zinc 100 mg kg −1 diet + purslane hydroextract 600 mg kg −1 of diet; BW, body weight; DFI, daily feed intake; FCR, feed conversion ratio; SEM, standard error of means; values are means ± SEM.…”