Effect of Artichoke (Cynara scolymus) Leaf Powder on Performance and Physicochemical Properties of Frozen Meat of Japanese Quail

This study evaluated the effects of artichoke leaf powder on growth performance and physicochemical properties of Japanese quailfrozen meat after 3 monthstorage. A total of 240 Japanese quail chicks (1 d old) were raised over a 42-d experimental period. The experiment was performed as a completely randomized design with 4 replicates of 15 quails in each, using a 4 × 2 factorial arrangement with diet and gender as main effects. Four dietary treatments were formulated by addition of 2 levels (1.5 and 3 percent) of artichoke leaf powder and 300 mg/kg vitamin E to the basal diet. Results showed that supplementing basal diet with artichoke leaf powder and vitamin E significantly affected growth performance parameters at 21 d of age, but body weight (BW) was the only growth performance which was affected by dietary treatments at 42 of age. Dietary treatments significantly affected only thiobarbituric reactive substances (TBARS) value of thigh meat. Vitamin E dietary treatment reduced TBARS value of thigh meat compared with control (P 0.05). The main effect of diet was statistically significant only for b* index of breast meat. In this regard, dietary 1.5 percent artichoke leaf powder resulted in higher b* values of breast meat when compared with control. The lightness values of thigh and breast meats and also redness value of breast meat were affected by gender (P lt;0.05). In general, this study showed that supplementing basal diet of Japanese quail with artichoke leaf powder did not improve growth performance, but has potential to improve oxidative stability and meat quality. In addition, vitamin E showed an improvement in growth performance at 21 d of age and oxidative stability of thigh meat at 42 d of age.