Potential of essential oils for poultry and pigs

An improved method of sample preparation was used in a microplate assay to evaluate the bactericidal activity levels of 96 essential oils and 23 oil compounds against Campylobacter jejuni, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella enterica obtained from food and clinical sources. Bactericidal activity (BA50) was defined as the percentage of the sample in the assay mixture that resulted in a 50% decrease in CFU relative to a buffer control. Twenty-seven oils and 12 compounds were active against all four species of bacteria. The oils that were most active against C. jejuni (with BA50 values ranging from 0.003 to 0.009) were marigold, ginger root, jasmine, patchouli, gardenia, cedarwood, carrot seed, celery seed, mugwort, spikenard, and orange bitter oils; those that were most active against E. coli (with BA50 values ranging from 0.046 to 0.14) were oregano, thyme, cinnamon, palmarosa, bay leaf, clove bud, lemon grass, and allspice oils; those that were most active against L monocytogenes (with BA50 values ranging from 0.057 to 0.092) were gardenia, cedarwood, bay leaf, clove bud, oregano, cinnamon, allspice, thyme, and patchouli oils; and those that were most active against S. enterica (with BA50 values ranging from 0.045 to 0.14) were thyme, oregano, cinnamon, clove bud, allspice, bay leaf, palmarosa, and marjoram oils. The oil compounds that were most active against C. jejuni (with BA50 values ranging from 0.003 to 0.034) were cinnamaldehyde, estragole, carvacrol, benzaldehyde, citral, thymol, eugenol, perillaldehyde, carvone R, and geranyl acetate; those that were most active against E. coli (with BA50 values ranging from 0.057 to 0.28) were carvacrol, cinnamaldehyde, thymol, eugenol, salicylaldehyde, geraniol, isoeugenol, citral, perillaldehyde, and estragole; those that were most active against L monocytogenes (with BA50 values ranging from 0.019 to 0.43) were cinnamaldehyde, eugenol, thymol, carvacrol, citral, geraniol, perillaldehyde, carvone S, estragole, and salicylaldehyde; and those that were most active against S. enterica (with BA50 values ranging from 0.034 to 0.21) were thymol, cinnamaldehyde, carvacrol, eugenol, salicylaldehyde, geraniol, isoeugenol, terpineol, perillaldehyde, and estragole. The possible significance of these results with regard to food microbiology is discussed.

A 42-d trial was conducted to study the influence of 2 plant extracts on performance, digestibility, and digestive organ weights in broilers. The feeding program consisted of a starter diet until 21 d and a finisher diet until 42 d. There were 4 treatment groups: control; 10 ppm avilamycin (AB); 200 ppm essential oil extract (EOE) from oregano, cinnamon, and pepper; and 5,000 ppm Labiatae extract (LE) from sage, thyme, and rosemary. No differences in feed intake or feed conversion were observed. From 14 to 21 d of age, broilers fed the LE diet grew faster than the broilers fed the control or EOE feeds (68.8 vs. 63.9 and 61.6 g/d, respectively). Antibiotic and plant extract supplementation improved apparent whole-tract and ileal digestibility of the nutrients. For starter feed, LE supplementation improved apparent fecal digestibility of DM (P 0.1). At the ileal level, the AB, EOE, and LE supplementation of the starter feed increased DM and starch (P 0.1). All additives improved apparent fecal digestibility of DM and CP of the finisher diet. No differences were observed for proventriculus, gizzard, liver, pancreas, or large or small intestine weight. In the present study, both plant extracts improved the digestibility of the feeds for broilers. The effect of different additives on digestibility improved the performance slightly, but this effect was not statistically significant.