Potential of Medicinal Plants as Hypocholesterolemic Agents in Chicken Meat Production

Abstract

Chicken meat is one of the most valuable and widely eaten meats across the world because of its moderate energy content, highly digestible proteins, unsaturated lipids, vitamin, and minerals. Besides red meat, chicken meat also contains a high amount of cholesterol content. High cholesterol intake increases the risk of atherosclerosis and other related diseases such as diabetes, cancers and brain diseases in humans. Recent growing awareness of the risk of cholesterol-rich food has necessitated the search into the use of cholesterol-reducing agents in food and meat products. Several medicinal plants have been considered as an effective panacea to reduce the cholesterol content in meat products due to their inherent enormous phytochemicals and fiber contents. Interestingly, these medicinal plants are currently used as natural growth promoters in animal nutrition to replace antibiotics (synthetic), which have been reported to cause antibiotic residues in animal products and antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains in consumers. Their application as growth promoters has played enormous roles in poultry production ranging from antioxidant, antimicrobial, immune-modulatory, and anti-stress activities to improve the immune system, nutrient absorption, growth performance, and meat quality. The potential of medicinal plants in animal diets to improve the performance, health, and antioxidant capacity of broiler chicken has been extensively reviewed, while only a few studies have discussed their hypocholesterolemic activities. Thus, this study aimed to discuss the source of cholesterol, factors influencing their deposition, and the potential of medicinal plants in lowering their concentration in animal muscle.