LAUSR

A feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effects of Piper sarmentosum leaves (PSL) on meat quality of broilers. The 144 commercial broiler chicks, one day old, were randomly assigned to 5 groups with three replicate cages. The five treatments were: 1) basal feed (8 chicks/cage), 2) basal feed (10 chicks/cage), 3) basal feed supplemented with 1% of PSL (10 chicks/cage), 4) basal feed supplemented with 2% of PSL (10 chicks/cage), and 5) basal feed supplemented with 3% of PSL (10 chicks/cage). The duration of dietary treatments was 42 days. The results showed that the group supplemented with 3% PSL had higher redness, yellowness, and cooking loss than the control group with 10 chickens/cage (P less than 0.05). It was also observed that the 3% PSL treatment gave significantly lower lightness than the 0% and 1% PSL treatments with 10 chickens/cage (P less than 0.05). Overall, the study indicated that PSL might improve chicken meat colour and protect against protein oxidation, but it has no potential in protecting against lipid oxidation in broiler filet.