The benefits of Maca (Lepidium meyenii) extract administration for male rabbits affected by environmental heat stress

Abstract

Heat stress (HS) is the most substantial environmental issue in rabbit health status impairment, which can lower productivity. Maca is a common medicinal plant with important biological activities including antioxidant, anti‐inflammatory, anti‐fatigue, and neuroprotective effects. The present research explored the alleged protective role of Maca extract in alleviating the adverse impact of HS on rabbits. Growing V‐line 6‐week‐old buck rabbits (N = 48) were orally administered Maca extract at levels of 0 (MAC0), 200 (MAC2), 400 (MAC4), or 600 (MAC6) mg/head twice per week. Compared to the control groups, rabbits provided Maca had better growth performance, feed intake and feed conversion ratio. Liver and tests weights were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in Maca treated groups compared to the control. hemoglobin, white blood cell, red blood corpuscles, platelet count, hematocrit, and lymphocytes were significantly increased in the MAC4 group compared with the control group. MAC4 treatment significantly reduced aspartate aminotransferase and malondialdehyde levels compared with other groups. Moreover, the concentrations of total bilirubin, creatinine, glucose, total cholesterol, and triglycerides were lower (p < 0.05) in the MAC4 group than in the controls. Oral administration of Maca improved cortisol and testosterone values, total antioxidant capacity, and superoxide dismutase. The MAC4 group exhibited significant improvement (p < 0.05) in sperm motility, survival, membrane functionality, concentration, and libido, with a significant decrease in abnormal sperm compared with the control group. Also, aforementioned group showed sperm cells with a normal structure and intact plasma membranes, acrosomes, and well‐organised axonemal components. Histopathological screening of liver sections showed moderate to severe degenerative and necrotic changes in rabbits exposed to HS, which were alleviated with Maca oral administration. In conclusion, oral administration of Maca extract at 400 or 600 mg/head‐weekly enhanced growth performance, hemato‐biochemical attributes, antioxidant status, and semen quality in rabbits during the hot season.

The Influence of Artichoke Aqueous extract on the growth performance, feed utilization, carcass characteristics, and health status of growing rabbits

“…Similarly, Al-Masari and Al-Himdany (2022) during 5 th weeks of rearing broiler hens adding either 0.5 or 1.0g of artichoke leaves extract powder/kg basal diet occurred respectively feed intake at 1158 and 1326 g compared with 1705g in control basal diet. The present study corresponded with former studies that showed significant improvements in growth performance and feed utilization as a response to dietary inclusion of natural antioxidants in the basal diet of growing rabbits (Ismail et al, 2023;Ragab et al, 2023).…”

Feasible feeding strategies for sustainable management of serve heat stress conditions: Effect of Milk Thistle extract on growth performance and health status of newly weaned rabbits

“…Therefore, much attention have long been given to nutrition efforts as well as other rearing strategies in order to minimise the serious effects of heat stress on rabbits, especially under stressful circumstances in the tropical and subtropical areas (Marai et al, 2001). Former studies have been recommended that the enriching the diets of heat stressed growing rabbits with herbal supplements rich in phenols, flavonoids and other bioactive components can alleviates the negative effects of heat stress through their activates as natural antioxidants (Abdelnour et al, 2022;Acamovic & Brooker, 2005;Ragab et al, 2023).…”

Exploring the chemical and pharmacological variability of Lepidium meyenii: a comprehensive review of the effects of maca

“…In vivo studies on male fertility in disease-free settings ( Prete et al, 2018 ; Yoshida et al, 2018 ; Miranda et al, 2022 ) and in gonadal toxicity models induced by cyclophosphamide ( Onaolapo et al, 2018 ), corticosterone ( Yu et al, 2020a ), environmental heat stress ( Ragab et al, 2023 ) or busulfan ( Zhou et al, 2023 ) employed oral administration of a variety of maca preparations: dry extract ( Onaolapo et al, 2018 ; Miranda et al, 2022 ), hydroalcoholic extract ( Yoshida et al, 2018 ), maca powder ( Prete et al, 2018 ), ethanolic ( Yu et al, 2020a ; Zhou et al, 2023 ) and aqueous extracts ( Ragab et al, 2023 ), and fractions of polysaccharides, oligosaccharides and small molecules ( Zhou et al, 2023 ).…”