Indian Journal of Animal Research

Extracts of mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) peels possess various biological activities such as antioxidants and anti-bacteria. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of mangosteen peel extract (MPE) on growth performance, meat quality, oxidation of meat and bacterial contents in the small intestine of broilers.

The 192, 7-day-old, chicks were allocated to 4 treatments with 3 replicates per treatment, each replicate containing 16 chicks. Birds were fed diets supplemented with 0, 0.2, 0.4 or 0.8% of MPE for a period of 5 weeks ad libitum. Growth performance was evaluated weekly. At 42 days old, the birds were slaughtered and the breast muscles were sampled from 4 birds per replicate for determining meat quality and oxidation. To determine bacterial quantities, the residue of feed in the small intestine (ilium and ceca) was sampled from one bird per replicate.

The results revealed that MPE had no significant effect on growth performance and intestinal bacterial contents. However, it was found that 0.4 to 0.8% of MPE could improve the meat quality by decreasing drip loss and total water loss in muscles. Moreover, 0.8% MPE group tended to be lower in lipid oxidation. This suggests that 0.8% MPE might protect the broiler breast meat against oxidation.