The Potency of Locally Available Orange Peel Essential Oil as A Feed Additive to Improve Performances of Poultry

Abstract

Indonesia as a tropical country has several orange varieties grown in the archipelago. The peel which contributes about 10 – 14% of the whole orange, is a potential waste to be utilized for making essential oil useful as an Antibiotic Growth Promoter (AGP) for poultry. Therefore, elaborative research is needed, because there are about 258 oranges from the genus citrus only. Since, many methods have been developed, to find a cheap method for the extraction of essential oil, and then protect the oil from evaporating before being implemented as a feed additive. Some foreign research on the use of orange peel essential oil shows prospective results. It is expected then, that the use of local orange peel essential oil will enable to replace the use of imported essential oil which is more expensive to the feed mills industry.