Telferia occidentalis and Ocimum gratissimum Leaf meal additives on lipids and antioxidants composition of laying chicken eggs

In this study, Telferia occidentalis and Ocimum gratissimum meals were used as additives in the diets of laying chickens to assess the lipids and antioxidant composition of the eggs. A total of 420 Isa-brown point-of-lay pullets were randomly allocated in a completely randomized design to seven dietary treatments (T1 - T7). T1 served as the control diet with no inclusion of test ingredients; pumpkin leaf meal (PLM) and scent leaf meal (SLM). In other treatments or diets PLM and SLM were included per 100kg feed as follows; T2 250g PLM, T3 250g SLM, T4 500g PLM, T5 500g SLM, T6 250gPLM+250gSLM, and T7 500gPLM+500g SLM. Data were collected on egg production in three phases (cycles) of egg laying. Phase one was marked as egg production period during which the birds were between 18 and 28 weeks old, phase two spanned from week 28  to 38 weeks old, while phase three covered the laying periods from 38 to 48 weeks old.  At the end of each laying cycle, two eggs were taken per replicate of each treatment for laboratory analyses to determine the presence and composition of dietary lipids and antioxidants in the raw egg. The dietary lipids and antioxidant parameters examined were cholesterol, triglycerides, total phenol, flavonoid and carotenoid. Results showed that, use of pumpkin leaf (PLM) and scent-leaf leaf meals at 250gPLM+250gSLM/100kg feed (T6) significantly (P>0.05) decreased egg cholesterol and triglyceride at first and third laying cycles. The phenol and flavonoid were not significantly (P>0.05) increased by the supplementation of laying chicken diets with PLM and SLM across various compositions applied in all the cycles suggesting that the herbs did not have negative effect on the egg phenol and flavonoid compositions. The laying chickens that received 500gPLM+500gSLM (T7) had significantly highest carotenoid value. Carotenoid is an important pigment that gives egg yolk its brilliant yellow colour and also enhances albumen quality. It can be concluded from the above that the use of Telferia occidentalis and Ocimum gratissimum meals in layer egg production as was done in this study improved the quality of eggs by lowering the lipids and increasing carotenoid constituents of the eggs, and by this, the health and wellbeing of the egg consumers can be enhanced.