Effect of Trichilia monadelpha stem bark extract on the fatty acid composition of rabbit’s thigh meat

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of Trichilia monadelpha stem bark extract on the fatty acid composition of rabbit’s thigh meat. A total of 40, 6-7 weeks New Zealand white × Chinchilla crossbred rabbits with an average weight of 490 ± 4.40 were randomly divided to 4 groups with 5 replications consisting of 2 animals each in a completely randomized design. Rabbits in treatment 1 (T1) was fed basal diet with no Trichilia monadelpha stem bark extract (TMSB), T2, T3 and T4 were fed basal diet with 3mL, 6mL and 9mL TMSB per rabbit/day. Phytochemical analysis of TMSB revealed the presence of tannins (10.95 mg/g), alkaloids (9.22 mg/g), saponins (4.75 mg/g), oxalates (3.10 mg/g), flavonoids (15.88 mg/g), phenols (18.46 mg/g), terpenoids (8.62 mg/g), glycosides (7.11 mg/g) and 2-diphenyl 1-piccrlhydrazyhydrate (430.8 mg/g). Concentrations of vitamins identified in the extract are; vitamin A (2.190 mg/100g), vitamin B1 (0.567 mg/100g), vitamin B2 (0.301 mg/100g), vitamin B3 (0.227 mg/100g), vitamin B9 (0.080 mg/100g), vitamin B12 (0.209 mg/100g) and vitamin C (5.680 mg/100g). Composition of saturated fatty acid (TSFA) decrease with a significant increase in monosaturated fatty acid (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) (P˂0.05) across the treatments. It was found that TMSB significantly (P˂0.05) influenced the concentration of total unsaturated fatty acid (TSFA). Therefore, it can be concluded that TMSB is capable of modulating the fatty acid and improving the quality of meat from rabbit without causing any deleterious effect on the performance of the animal.