Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on the Nutrition of Herbivores 2018 Herbivore nutrition supporting sustainable intensification and agro‐ecological approaches Advances in Animal Biosciences This book is part of a series, which is a companion to the journal ANIMAL 2 to 6 September 2018, Clermont‐Ferrand, France 470 Session 4: Nutrition to improve milk and meat quality Effects of saffron petals ethanolic extract and vitamin E on plasma antioxidant status in Baluchi male lambs Fereshteh Alipour, Alireza Vakili, Mohsen Danesh Mesgaran, Hadi Ebrahimi ferdowsi mashhad university, Mashhad, Iran E-mail: savakili@um.ac.ir Take home message Saffron petal extract like vitamin E has improved the antioxidant status in plasma of Baluchi male lambs. Introduction Lately consumers have rejected synthetic antioxidants because of their carcinogenicity. According to the literature, inclusion foods containing phenolic combinations in the diet of animals, contribute to healthful animal yields, moreover the antioxidant properties of these compounds inhibited of cholesterol oxidation in blood and meat. Saffron petal as the important byproduct of saffron is with a production of more than 10,000 tons in year that is discarded as a waste. The phenolic combinations among, flavonoids and anthocyanins are presumably the biologically active components of the saffron petal (Kubo and Kinst-Hori, 1999). There is little information about the use of saffron petal as a rich phenolic source on the antioxidant status of the livestock Therefore, this study can be done to investigate the effects of saffron petal extract on the antioxidant status of Baluchi male lambs. Materials & methods Sixteen Baluchi male lambs (initial body weight 35.22 ± 5.75 kg) were used in a 42-day trial during to determine the effects of ethanolic saffron petals extract (SPE) and vitamin E on antioxidant status and lipid oxidation. The lambs were randomly assigned into four groups (n = 4). The first group weekly subcutaneous injection (5 ml) of normal saline (control). The second group, weekly subcutaneous injection of the ethanolic SPE (25 mg/kg BW). The third group, subcutaneous injection of DL-α-tocopheryl acetate a weekly (Total dose was 1350 IU). The fourth group, administered as a weekly oral dose of ethanolic SPE (500 mg/kg BW). The lambs were fed with a basal diet (40:60 forage:concentrate). Blood samples were taken from lambs in days 1, 14, 28 and 42 to measure the enzymatic activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), the total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and lipids oxidation by forming Malondialdehyde (MDA), using commercial kits (Cayman Chemical Company, Ann Arbor, MI, USA). All data were analysed using repeated measures and the Proc Mixed model (SAS 9.1). Treatments, lambs within treatment, week of measurement and the interaction of treatment × measurement week as the main effect. Lambs within treatment was a random variable. Data are presented as the least square mean ± SE, and the means evaluation was done using Tukey’s test. Differences were considered significant at P < 0.05. Results The effects of treatments on plasma antioxidant status and lipids oxidation are presented in Table 1. There were significant differences between treatments for the activities of GPx, SOD and MDA (P < 0.05). However, there were no significant differences for TAC (P > 0.05). The GPx activity significantly increased just with the oral SPE, whereas all treatments significantly increased SOD activity compared to control. There was treatment × week interaction for GPx (P < 0.05). The reason for the increase of antioxidant enzymes by saffron petals can be attributed to its rich phenolic compounds (3.4 mg GA/g dry weight) including flavonoids and anthocyanins. The antioxidant capacity of saffron petals is related to the presence of flavonoids (Termentzi and Kokkalou. 2008). Vitamin E acts as a free radical sweeper in the prevention of diseases and thereby inhibits lipid peroxidation (ELDemerdash, 2004). Also, the reports were of protected lipid oxidation with injective vitamin E in lambs and pork (Maiorano et al., 2016). Table 1 Effects of saffron petals ethanolic extract and vitamin E on plasma antioxidant status in Baluchi male lambs. Treatment P-value Item Control Injective SPE Injective Vit E Oral SPE SEM Treat Week Treat×Week GPX (u/l) 33.26 39.35 40.85 53.49 1.930 0.0001 0.137 0.0001 SOD (u/l) 16.15 27.16 38.27 21.87 2.240 0.0004 0.016 0.415 MDA (nmol/dl) 1.51 1.42 1.62 1.82 0.088 0.040 0.018 0.107 TAC (mmol/l) 0.28 0.27 0.31 0.30 0.017 0.57 0.000 0.14 Conclusion These results indicate that petal extract of saffron, such as vitamin E improved the plasma antioxidant status in lambs. Acknowledgements Researchers gratefully acknowledge funding from department of animal science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran. References EL-Demerdash, FM 2004. Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology 18, 113–21. Kubo I and Kinst-Hori I 1999. Agricultural and Food Chemistry 47, 4121-4125. Maiorano G, Angwech H, Di Memmo D, Wilkanowska A, Mucci R, Abiuso C and Tavaniello S 2016. Small Ruminant Research 139, 52-59. Termentzi A and Kokkalou E 2008. Planta Medica 74: 573–581.

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