Study on the bacteriostatic action of Chinese herbal medicine on avian Trichosporon

Preventive effect of Terminalia bellirica (Gaertn.) Roxb. extract on mice infected with Salmonella Typhimurium

Terminalia bellirica (Gaertn.) Roxb. (TB) is a traditional herbal combination used in Chinese medicine for the treatment of a broad range of diseases. In this study, thirty KM mice were randomly divided into control (N), infection group (NS), and the TB protection group (HS). Based on its digestive feature, intestinal physical barrier, immunological barrier and gut microbiota effects in vivo on challenged with S.typhimurium mice were investigated after oral administration of 600 mg/kg b.wt of TB for 13 days. The results show that the extract could improve the level of serum immunoglobulins (IgA and IgG), decrease the intestinal cytokine secretion to relieve intestinal cytokine storm, reinforce the intestinal biochemical barrier function by elevating the sIgA expression, and strengthen the intestinal physical barrier function. Simultaneously, based on the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA analyzed, the results of the taxonomic structure of the intestinal microbiota demonstrated that the TB prevention effect transformed the key phylotypes of the gut microbiota in S. Typhimurium-challenged mice and promoted the multiplication of beneficial bacteria. Furthermore, the abundance of Firmicutes and Deferribacteres increased, while that of Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria decreased. At the genus level, the abundance of Ruminococcus and Oscillospira was substantially enhanced, while the other dominant genera showed no significant change between the vehicle control groups and the TB prevention groups. In summary, these results provide evidence that the administration of TB extract can prevent S. Typhimurium infection by alleviating the intestinal physical and immunological barriers and normalizing the gut microbiota, highlighting a promising application in clinical treatment. Thus, our results provide new insights into the biological functions of TB for the preventive effect of intestinal inflammation.

Effect of Dietary Paeoniae Radix Alba Extract on the Growth Performance, Nutrient Digestibility and Metabolism, Serum Biochemistry, and Small Intestine Histomorphology of Raccoon Dog During the Growing Period

Paeoniae radix alba extract (PRA extract) has the functions of regulating immunity, resisting inflammation, and has antioxidant properties. However, current recommendations of dietary PRA extract levels for raccoon dogs were inadequate. The purpose of this experimental study was to gain information allowing for better estimating the effects of PRA extract on raccoon dogs, and their PRA requirements. Fifty healthy male raccoon dogs of (120 ± 5) days old were randomly divided into 5 groups (group PRA0, PRA1, PRA2, PRA4, PRA8) with 10 animals in each group and 1 in each replicate. Five kinds of experimental diets were prepared with five levels of Paeoniae radix alba extract (0, 1, 2, 4, 8 g/kg) in the basic diet. The prefeeding period was 7 days and the experimental period was 40 days. The results showed that the average daily feed intake in group PRA1 and PRA2 was significantly higher than that in other groups (P < 0.01). The dry matter excretion in group PRA8 was significantly higher than that in other groups (P < 0.01), while the dry matter digestibility and protein digestibility in group PRA8 were significantly lower than those in other groups (P < 0.01). Nitrogen retention in group PRA1 and PRA2 was significantly higher than that in group PRA8 (P < 0.05). With the increase of the content of Paeoniae radix alba extract in diet, the activity of alkaline phosphatase in group PRA2 was significantly higher than that in group PRA0 (P < 0.05); The activity of serum SOD in group PRA4 was significantly higher than that in other groups (P < 0.01). The content of serum IgA in group PRA2 was significantly higher than that in other groups (P < 0.05). The content of TNF-α in intestinal mucosa in group PRA1 and group PRA2 was significantly lower than that in group PRA0 (P < 0.05). In conclusion, we found that dietary Paeoniae radix alba extract intake significantly improved the feed intake and nitrogen deposition of Ussuri raccoon dog, increased the content of serum IgA and reduced the content of TNF-α in the small intestinal mucosa. We suggest that an estimated dietary Paeoniae radix alba extract level of 1 to 2 g/kg could be used as a guide to achieve the optimal performance of raccoon dogs.

Medicinal Plants as an Alternative to Control Poultry Parasitic Diseases

Parasitic infections are a major public health concern affecting millions of people universally. This review elaborates on the potential impacts of plants and their bioactive components that have been widely used in the cure of several parasitic infections of poultry. The medicinal importance of natural herbs depends upon their bioactive ingredients, which are originated from crude plants, consequently leading to the specific action on the body. Due to the limited availability of effective drugs and high cost, the development of drug resistance in several harmful parasites and microbes leads to huge economic losses in the poultry industry. This will impose the development of innovative sources for drugs to overwhelm the therapeutic failure. Moreover, the environment-friendly feed additives which can be applied as a substitute to antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) for broilers were proven. The application of natural products with therapeutic characteristics is an ancient practice that is appropriately gaining more acceptance. Globally, it is assessed that some 20,000 species of higher plants are used medicinally, although traditional medicine has a scarcity of knowledge on its efficiency and wellbeing. This review explores the usage of medicinal herbs for parasitic infections, emphasizing the recent knowledge available while detecting the research gaps which may be explored to find the usage of herbal medicines for parasitic infections in poultry. In conclusion, herbal medicines are the effective source of prime components for drug detection and the formation of phytopharmaceuticals in the control of devastating parasitic infections. There is a prerequisite to applying the traditional medicine information in clinical applications via value addition.