1. The effect of Goji berries (Lycium barbarum) dietary supplementation on rabbit meat quality.
- Author
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Menchetti, Laura, Brecchia, Gabriele, Branciari, Raffaella, Barbato, Olimpia, Fioretti, Bernard, Codini, Michela, Bellezza, Enrico, Trabalza-Marinucci, Massimo, and Miraglia, Dino
- Subjects
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RABBIT meat , *MEAT quality , *ACIDIFICATION , *BERRIES , *OXIDANT status , *MEAT analysis , *REACTIVE oxygen species , *MEAT markets - Abstract
This study evaluated the effect of different dietary concentrations of Goji berries (GB) on the meat quality of rabbit. At weaning, 60 New Zealand male rabbits were assigned to three groups and fed with a commercial standard diet (C), C supplemented with 1% (LG) or 3% Goji berries (HG) until slaughter. Supplementation did not affect colour, water holding capacity, and tenderness but regression analyses showed linear relationships between pH (P <.05), Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Substances (TBARS; P <.001), Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC; P <.001), Redox Index (RI; P <.001), and phenolic content (P <.001) of Longissimus thoracis et lumborum muscle and the rate of GB in the feed. However, by pairwise comparisons emerged that acidification (pH: P <.05), antioxidant/oxidant status (TBARS, ORAC, RI; P <.001), and phenolic content (P <.01) of muscle significantly improved only in HG compared with C group. Then, a dose-dependent relation was found but only the higher dose of GB guaranteed an increase in protection against oxidative phenomena of meat. Unlabelled Image • The Goji berries dietary supplementation effects were evaluated on the rabbit meat quality. • Diet mainly influenced TBARS, ORAC, Redox index, and total phenolic content. • Goji supplementation improves oxidative stability of rabbit meat. • Goji compounds inhibit lipid oxidation mainly by hydrogen-atom transfer. • We propose the use of Goji to revive the rabbit meat market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
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