Effect of Dietary Supplementation of Jengkol (Pithecellobium jiringa) Skin Extract on Blood Biochemistry and Gut Flora of Broiler Chicken

Abstract

This study was aimed to determine the effect of Jengkol (Pithecellobium jiringan) skin extract in ration on blood glucose, uric acid and total gut E. coli count of broiler chicken. One hundred day old commercial broiler chicks were randomly allocated to four treatment groups as T1, T2, T3 and T4 with 25 birds per treatment group replicated five times with five birds per replicate in a Complete Randomized Design (CRD). The birds in the control group (T1) were given normal basal diet without the addition of jengkol skin extract, while as other groups (T2, T3, T4) were supplemented with 0.01, 0.02 and 0.03% jengkol skin extract respectively. The blood samples were randomly collected from five birds per replicate at the end experimental period (5th week) and analyzed for the estimation of blood glucose and uric acid. The total E. coli count of gut contents was analyzed using Total Plate Count method. The results revealed that blood glucose was non-significantly (p>0.05) increased in the groups fed Jengkol at various levels when compared to the control. Further, a significantly (p<0.05) proportional decreasing trend in blood uric acid levels was found with increase in the level of dietary Jengkol, with highest reduction of 8.76±0.35 mg/dl in the group supplemented with 0.03% Jengkol (T4) compared to 11.53±1.20 mg/dl in the control group. Moreover, the total gut E. coli also decreased significantly (p<0.05) in the groups fed Jengkol in the diet (T2, T3 and T4). In conclusion, dietary inclusion of Jengkol had beneficial effect with regard to its ability in reducing the blood uric acid levels and total gut E. coli count of broiler chicken.