Abstract
Ricetrienol is plant oil produced from rice bran which contain tocopherol, tocotrienol and plant sterol. The objective of this study was to prove the effect of dietary ricetrienol on cholesterol, vitamin E concentrations in egg yolk, yolk antioxidative activities, egg production performance and egg quality of laying hens. One hundred 151 days old laying hens were classified randomly into two groups. One group was feed a commercial layer diet supplemented with 0.5% ricetrienol and the other was feed only a commercial layer diet as control (517 days old). Egg production performance (egg production, egg mass, feed conversion) and egg quality (egg weight, albumen hight, Haugh unit, shell thickness, yolk color) were measured. Chicken liver and serum were analyzed for cholesterol and triglyceride contents. Egg yolk was analyzed for cholesterol, TBARS, tocopherol and tocotrienol concentrations. Egg production performance was not affected by ricetrienol diet. The egg weight and yolk color L* increased but a* decreased with ricetrienol diet (P<0.05). Liver cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations decreased but serum cholesterol and triglyceride were not affected by ricetrienol diet (P<0.05). The egg yolk cholesterol and TBARS concentrations decreased 14% and 52%, respectively. The tocopherol and tocotrienol concentrations of the egg yolk of the 420 days old hens increased by 2.8 fold in ricetrienol diet (P<0.05). Results of the present study conclude that dietary ricetrienol decreased egg yolk cholesterol concentration, yolk lipids peroxidation and increased egg weight, yolk vitamin E (tocopherol, tocotrienol) content but did not affect egg production performance.
