Effect of Vernonia amygdalina Extracts and Meal on Colour, Physicochemical Properties and Microbial Load of Broiler Meat

Aims: This study was carried out to investigate the meat colour, physicochemical properties and microbial load of broiler meat fed Vernonia amygdalina extracts and meal. Study Design: The experiment employed a complete randomized design; all data generated were subjected to analysis of variance, P=0.05. Place and Duration of Study: The feeding trial of the study was carried out at the Teaching and Research Farm, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria while meat quality attributes were evaluated at Animal Products and Processing Laboratory, Department of Animal Science of the same institution between June and September, 2016. Methodology: Twelve 8 weeks old broiler chickens with an average weight of 2.5±0.2 kg used in this study were obtained from an experimental unit where they were assigned to four treatments. Treatment 1 and treatment 2 were offered Vernonia amygdalina aqueous extract and ethanolic extract in drinking water respectively and leaf meal was added to the feed of treatment 3 in powdered form. Treatment 4 was offered water and feed without Vernonia amygdalina leaf meal or extracts. Meat produced from the carcass was refrigerated before being analyzed. Results: The result revealed that supplementation of VA extract for T1 and T2 gave better meat physicochemical parameter compared to control. However, pH ranged from 5.51-5.87 and cooking loss (29.84 -37.19) were not significantly (P>0.05) different among the treatments. T2 (ethanolic extract) had the highest extract release volume. T1 (aqueous extract) had the highest meat swelling capacity (227.62) and water holding capacity (70.33). T3 (leaf meal) showed a significantly (P<0.05) lower lightness (L*) and yellowness b* while T1 (Aqueous extract) had higher redness (a*). Total viable count (TVC) of treatment 2 was significantly lower compared to others. Conclusion: The result of these findings showed that the use of the ethanolic extract of Vernonia amygdalina in water was able to inhibit microbial load and improve physicochemical properties of fresh meat compared to aqueous extract and VA leaf meal.