The Effects of Turmeric, Cinnamon, Ginger and Garlic Powder Nutrition on Antioxidant Enzymes’ Status and Hormones Involved in Energy Metabolism of Broilers during Heat Stress

This experiment was carried out to determine the effects of turmeric, cinnamon, ginger and garlic powder on mixed sex Cobb-500 broilers performance, serum antioxidant status, and serum thyroid hormones. Heat stresses were created by increasing ambient temperature to 32-34 °C from 12: a.m. to 16: p.m. during days 31-42 of the experiment. Blood serum samples were obtained from 6 broilers of each treatment at the end of experiment (day 42) to assess antioxidative activities of liver enzymes and thyroid hormones. Chicks fed diets supplemented with medical plants tended to have higher average daily gain and had greater spleen weight compared to the control. Supplementation of medical plants increased activities of total superoxide dismutase (SOD) in cinnamon, glutathione peroxidase (GPX) in ginger, catalase (CAT) in cinnamon and garlic powder, total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in cinnamon, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) in garlic powder and corticosteroid (CE) in cinnamon groups. But, the supplementation reduced concentrations of malondial-dehyde (MDA) in cinnamon group (P<0.05). Concentration of thyroid hormones (THs) in medical plant-supplemented broiler chicks tended to be higher at 42 d of age compared to the control (P<0.05). Supple-mentation of turmeric and ginger caused significant reduction in feed conversion ratio (FCR), improvement in performance, and enhancement in antioxidant enzyme activity with the increase in cinnamon consump-tion. Also, turmeric and ginger increased THs of broilers.