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The experiment was to study the effect of safflower yellow pigment on growth performance, immune function and antioxidant capacity of Pekin-duck. A total of 220 Pekin-ducks were randomly divided into four groups, with five replicates in each group, and 11 ducks in each replicate. The Pekin-ducks in control group were fed with basic diet, and Pekin-ducks in test groups were fed with basic diet supplemented with 0.02%, 0.04% and 0.08% safflower yellow pigment, respectively. The trial period was 42 d. The results showed that compared with control group, the average daily gain of ducks in yellow pigment group 2 and yellow pigment group 3 increased by 11.06% and 7.95% respectively (P<0.05), and feed to gain ratio of yellow pigment group 2 decreased by 8.12% (P<0.05). Compared with control group, the thymus index of yellow pigment group 2 and yellow pigment group 3 increased by 18.60% and 15.35% respectively (P<0.05), and the bursal index of Fabricius increased by 16.92% and 15.38% respectively (P<0.05). Compared with control group, the serum IgA of ducks in yellow pigment group 2 and yellow pigment group 3 increased by 17.12% and 15.31%, respectively (P<0.05), and the serum IL-2 content increased by 21.70% and 16.21% respectively (P<0.05). Compared with control group, the activity of SOD in serum of yellow pigment group 2 and yellow pigment group 3 increased by 26.60% and 29.27% (P<0.05), and the content of MDA decreased by 19.75% and 21.88% (P<0.05). The activity of GSH-Px in serum of each yellow pigment adding group increased by 18.48%, 19.79% and 23.28%, respectively (P<0.05). The study indicates that the diet supplemented with safflower yellow pigment can improve the growth performance, immune organ index and antioxidant capacity of Pekin-ducks. The effect of adding 0.04% safflower yellow pigment is better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a novel method of developing microwave distillation and solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (MD-SPME/GC-MS) for the analysis of critical components in safflower. The safflower samples used in the experiment came from Beijing, China, while the SPME fibers used were polydimethylsiloxane, polydimethylsiloxane/divinylbenzene and carbowax/divinylbenzene. Results of the analysis proved that MD-SPME/GC-MS is an effective and simple method for determining the volatile components in safflower.