Echinacea application in feed additives

Echinacea application in feed additives

Edited by Ivy

In animal breeding, due to the influence of factors such as climate, environment, management, feed, etc., various unhealthy diseases have increased significantly, and the disease has changed from a curative type to a preventive type. According to the announcement of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, starting from July 1, 2020, feed manufacturers will stop producing commercial feed containing antibiotics. In this case, natural medicine has a bright future.

Echinacea Purpurea extract, in view of its good immune-enhancing activity and outstanding antiviral effect, as well as the safety proved by domestic and foreign studies, the application of medicinal echinacea is increasingly abundant. At present, people in the agriculture industry are beginning to pay attention to the application of echinacea extract feed additives. This undoubtedly played a positive role in the development of aquaculture production.

1. Anti-inflammatory activity and antibacterial activity

Echinacea is used as a traditional anti-inflammatory drug in North America and Europe. Echinacea extract showed significant anti-inflammatory effects in glacial acetic acid-induced mouse vascular permeability model, carrageenan-induced rat group swelling model, and LPS-induced rat macrophage TNF-α secretion model. Stimal et al. treated mice infected with Candida albicans with Echinacea polysaccharides. After 24 hours, the Candida in the mouse kidneys was significantly reduced, indicating that Echinacea can resist Candida infections.

2. Antiviral and antitumor activity

Binns SE et al. found that the extract of Echinacea purpurea has an inhibitory effect on herpes simplex type I virus. Wacker and Hilbig confirmed that Echinacea extract has anti-influenza virus, herpes virus and vesicular stomatitis virus activity. Zhang Yingtao and others found that echinacea extract has varying degrees of inhibitory effects on influenza virus, Sakchi virus, and respiratory syncytial virus. In the cell culture serum of mouse macrophages pretreated with echinacea, tumor necrosis factor-α, IL-1, interferon-β2, and cytotoxicity against tumor cells increased. The purified polysaccharide isolated from echinacea cell culture promotes the automatic migration of human leukocytes and increases the ability of these cells to kill Staphylococcus aureus.

3. Toxicological research

So far, standard toxicological evaluation methods and animal experiments have considered that Echinacea is completely non-toxic. The company commissioned Shanghai Medical Research Institute to study the effects of echinacea on mouse hemolysin, phagocytic function of peritoneal macrophages and NK cell activity. The results show that echinacea can enhance non-specific immunity, humoral and cellular immunity of animals.

4. Indications and usage

Indications: used before and after vaccine immunization of pigs and chickens, it can increase antibody titer and prolong antibody peak time; used for viral diseases such as mild influenza, atypical Newcastle disease, infectious bursitis; pig blue ear disease, round Adjuvant treatment of cyclovirus and so on.