Effects of Spinach Extract and Licorice Extract on Growth Performance, Antioxidant Capacity, and Gut Microbiota in Weaned Piglets

作者：Jiahao Zhu, Jincong Lian, Haibin Deng, Junyi Luo, Ting Chen, Jiajie Sun, Yongliang Zhang, Yongan Yang, Pingxiang Liu, Qianyun Xi · 发表于：Animals · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.3390/ani14020321 · 被引用次数：14 · 研究领域：Pharmacological Effects of Natural Compounds、Ginseng Biological Effects and Applications、Moringa oleifera research and applications

Anemia and weaning stress are important factors affecting piglet growth performance. Spinach extract and licorice extract have been used to improve anemia and antioxidant capacity, respectively. However, whether they have synergistic effects has not been reported. To evaluate the effects of mixed spinach extract and licorice extract on growth performance, serum biochemistry, antioxidant capacity, and gut microbiota in weaned piglets, a total of 160 weaned piglets were randomly allotted to four treatments with four replications of 10 piglets each. The four treatments were as follows: control (CON) group (basal diet), spinach extract (SE) group (basal diet + 1.5 kg/t spinach extract), licorice extract (LE) group (basal diet + 400 g/t licorice extract), and spinach extract and licorice extract (MIX) group (basal diet + 1.5 kg/t spinach extract + 400 g/t licorice extract). The results showed that, compared with the CON group, diets supplemented with spinach extract and licorice extract significantly increased the average daily gain (p < 0.05), while considerably reducing the feed-to-gain ratio (p < 0.05). Moreover, the MIX group exhibited a significant up-regulation of serum total protein, globulin, albumin, glucose, and triglyceride levels in comparison to the CON group (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, both the anemia and antioxidant capacity of piglets were effectively improved. Notably, the MIX group achieved even better results than the individual supplementation in terms of e...