Effects of thymol and carvacrol dietary supplementation on lipid oxidation in Broilers

LUNA, AGUSTIN; LABAQUE CARLA; ZYGADLO JA; MARIN RH

POULTRY SCIENCE

POULTRY SCIENCE ASSOC INC

Lugar: Champaign ; Año: 2010 p. 366 - 370

0032-5791

The objetive of the present study was to evaluate, in comparison with butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), the effects of thymol, and its isomer carvacrol on lipid oxidation when supplemented in the broiler chicken basal diet. At 7 days of age, broiler chickens (Cobb-500) were assigned to one of four treatments that differed in the supplement added to the feed: Vehicle (0.5 % ethanolic solution; Control), 150 ppm of BHT (BHT), 150 ppm of thymol (THY) and 150 ppm of carvacrol (CAR) until slaughter age (42 days of age). Samples of breast (pectoral major) and thigh (biceps femoris) were taken from the carcasses at 0, 5 and 10 days of storage at 4°C. Lipid oxidation of samples were determined by the analysis of 2-thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARs). As expected, samples storaged for 5 to 10 days significantly increased (P < 0.001) the levels of TBARs in samples from brest and thigh. Dietary supplementation did not seems to affect brest samples. However, after 5 and 10 days of storage, increasingly higher values of TBARs were detected in broiler thigh of the control groups in comparison to the three supplemented groups (THY, CAR and BHT). Interestingly, no differences were detected between the supplemented groups suggesting that the antioxidant activity of both thymol and carvacrol diet supplementation have similar effectiveness to retard lipid oxidation than the supplementation with BHT. Thus, the application of these “natural” antioxidants (thymol or carvacrol) could be useful to improve poultry meat quality