The hepatoprotective effect of sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) berries on induced aflatoxin B1 poisoning in chickens

Abstract

The leaves and berries of sea buckthorn (SB; Hippophae rhamnoides; family Elaeagnaceae) are medically claimed as having phytoantioxidant, antiinflammatory, and anticancerous properties in humans. This study evaluated the hepatoprotective activity of oil from SB berries against toxicity induced by aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in broiler chickens. The toxicity of AFB1 led to lower total serum proteins and specifically reduced albumin (P < 0.001). Serum aspartate aminotransferase increased from 191.14 ± 11.56 to 218.80 ± 13.68 (P < 0.001). When chickens were simultaneously dosed with AFB1 and an extract of SB berries, subsequent histology of the liver showed a significant reduction of necrosis and fatty formation compared with chickens treated with AFB1 alone. Immunohistochemical results indicated that COX2, Bcl-2, and p53 were highly expressed in the liver of AFB1-treated chickens and their expression was significantly reduced by SB oil supplementation. The levels of AFB1 residues in chickens livers were significantly reduced by SB oil from 460.92 ± 6.2 ng/mL in the AFB1 group to 15.59 ± 6.1 ng/mL in the AFB1 and SB oil group. These findings suggest that SB oil has a potent hepatoprotective activity, reducing the concentration of aflatoxins in liver and diminishing their adverse effects.

Pathological changes in the immune organs of broiler chickens fed on corn naturally contaminated with aflatoxins B1and B2

“…These results are in agreement with previous research, which showed that the intake of AFB could induce the decrease of the relative weight of thymus and BF in broilers (Santin et al, 2003;Manafi et al, 2012). The increase of splenic relative weight observed in our study was also in line with earlier findings (Rosa et al, 2001;Solcan et al, 2013).…”

Histological Lesions, Cell Cycle Arrest, Apoptosis and T Cell Subsets Changes of Spleen in Chicken Fed Aflatoxin-contaminated Corn

“…In the present study, the relative weight of spleen was used to judge the extent of spleen lesions. The relative weight of the spleen in birds fed with corn naturally contaminated with AFB 1 and AFB 2 increased, which was similar to the results from other researchers [20,21,22]. According to histopathological observation, the relative weight increase seems to be due to the congestion of red pulp in the spleen.…”

Abundance of active ingredients in sea-buckthorn oil

“…In Indian, Chinese and Tibetan medicines sea-buckthorn fruits were added to medicines, as their ingredients were thought to have a beneficial effect on the function of the alimentary, respiratory and circulatory systems. Nowadays, many studies confirm the practices of Asian doctors from hundreds of years ago [41–44]. Physical and chemical properties of sea-buckthorn seed oil are contained in Table 1.…”