Effects of local aloe vera oil extraction on various broiler carcass characteristics

The study was conducted in the poultry field, the Agricultural Research and Experiment Station at the College of Agriculture, University of Al-Muthanna, to determine the effect of adding locally extracted and imported aloe vera oil on some carcass traits of broilers from 22/2/2022 to 29/3/2022. A total of 405 unsexed one-day-old chicks of Ross 308 were used. Chicks were randomly distributed with 45 chicks for each treatment, with three replicates of the treatment (15 chicks for each replicate), with nine treatments, which are T1 without any addition, as for the treatments T2, T3, T5, T4, the olive oil was a local extract. The treatments (T6, T7, T8, T9) were imported aloe vera oil. The addition of oil was at 0.3 and 0.4 ml per kg feed. The results of the experiment indicated a significant improvement in carcass traits for broilers (carcass weight, dressing percentage without giblet, the relative weight of liver, heart and gizzard, the dressing percentage with giblet, the main cut and secondary cuts) and deboning percentage. The oil extracted locally showed the best results in a significant way compared to the rest of the treatments of the imported oil of the aloe vera plant.


Introduction
Medicinal plants or their extracts have been used to have an essential role in treating many diseases that affect humans or animals 1 .They have been used as alternatives to antibiotics and as growth stimulants 2 .It was later discovered that the oil extracts of some medicinal plants, stimulating effects on the digestive system in animals, could cause an increase in the production of digestive enzymes, improved utilization of the digestion of food products through improvement in the vital function of the liver 3,4 .One of these plants is the aloe vera plant, one of the ancient medicinal plants used in many magazines.It contains many active compounds, more than 200 active compounds 5 .The genus aloe contains more than 400 species, the most famous of which is Aloe vera, the biologically active species.Aloe vera is derived from the word Alloeh, which means bitter.Vera in Latin means liquid 6 .Aloe vera leaves and oils have been used since ancient times to treat many diseases, especially skin diseases, as the active compounds in aloe vera gel help in wound healing.The presence of amino acids works to restore the construction of injured tissues.It also contains the mineral elements iron, potassium, magnesium, calcium and zinc, which are essential elements in building tissues and wound healing7.Studies indicate that the leaves of the aloe vera plant positively affect the productive performance of birds.Adding aloe vera extract at a level of 5, 10 and 15 ml/ liter to drinking water for broilers, significant improvement in body weight, feed consumption, feed and water consumption efficiency and feed conversion efficiency.The level of 15 ml/ liter was significantly more than the rest of the levels 8 .The current study aims to know the effect of extracting aloe vera leaf oil locally and comparing it with the imported on the carcass traits of broilers.

Materials and Methods
The study was conducted at the poultry field, Agricultural Research and Experiment Station, Agriculture College, Al-Muthanna University, to determine the effect of aloe vera oil extracted locally and imported on some productive traits of broilers, different levels of oil extracted from the leaves of the aloe vera plant, from 22/2/2022 to 29/3/2022.405 unsexed, one-day-old chicks of Ross 308 broilers were used.Chicks were randomly distributed to nine treatments with three replicates for each, 45 chicks per treatment (15 chicks for each replicate).The treatments were followed: T1: without any addition, as for the treatments T2, T3, T4 and T5, they were local aloe vera oil and the treatments T7, T6, T8 and T9, they were imported aloe vera oil, the addition of oil was at the levels 0.3 and 0.4 per kg feed.The birds were reared on four-storey batteries.Each floor contains a cage with dimensions of 1×1.5 m.The Aloe vera leaves were brought from the Aloe vera farm in Anbar Governorate, and the oil was extracted locally in two ways:

Extraction by water bath
Cut the leaves of the plant into tiny pieces, then put it in a glass container with a quantity of corn oil, close it tightly, place it in a water bath, and leave it on the fire for an hour.Then we notice the oil separation from the water, leave it for a few minutes to cool, place it in the cooling to facilitate the separation of oil from water, then separate and place it in cans and keep it in a cool and dry place 9 .

Extraction by saturation method with fats or oils
Aloe vera leaves are placed in the electric mixer to get an amount of aloe vera juice.After getting an amount of aloe vera juice, put an equal amount of corn oil on the fire.Leave it on the fire for about 45 minutes, where all the water is evaporated, and only the olive oil remains with the remains of the plant; then the oil is filtered to obtain pure oil, left to cool and then packed in special containers, store in a cool dry place 9 .

Carcass traits
Carcass weight, dressing percentage with and without giblet, the relative weight of giblet (heart, liver and gizzard), the relative weight of the main cuts (breast, thigh and drumstick), the relative weight of secondary cuts (neck, wings and back), the relative weight of meat, bone and skin for main cuts (deboning percentage).

Statistical analysis
A Complete Randomized Design (CRD) was used to study different treatments' effects on the traits studied.Significant differences between means were compared with the Duncan 10 multiple range test under significance levels of 0.05 and 0.01.The program SPSS 11 was used in the statistical analysis.

Results
Table 1 shows the effect of using the oil extract of the leaves of the aloe vera plant on the dressing percentage, where the significant superiority (P≤0.05) of the treatment T3 (0.4 ml aloe vera leaves oil extract / kg of feed) compared to the treatment T2, T4 and T5, which significantly outperformed compared to the treatments T6 and T7, which significantly outperformed compared to treatments T8 and T9, which excelled compared to the control treatment, where we note the continued superiority of treatment T3 significantly (P≤0.05)compare with the other treatments with respect to the percentage of purification without giblet, as there were no significant differences among the treatments with respect to the relative weight of the heart, as for the relative weight of the liver, we note the continued superiority of T3 significantly compare with the treatments T2 and T4, which was significantly superior (P≤0.05)compared to treatments T6 and T7, which was significantly superior compared to treatments T8 and T9, they outperformed the control treatment.The continued superiority of the T3 treatment was significant concerning the relative weight of the gizzard and the dressing percentage with the giblet compared with the other treatments.Table 2 shows a significant increase in the relative weight of the main cuts (breast, thigh and drumstick) with a significant decrease in the relative weight of the secondary cuts (neck, wings and back) for all treatments of locally extracted aloe vera oil compared to the imported aloe vera oil treatments and the control treatment.Tables 3, 4 and 5 show that the relative weight of meat in the main cuts (chest, thigh and atta drum) significantly increased in treatments (T2, T3, T4 and T5) compared to treatments T6, T7, T8 and T9, which in turn were significantly superior compared to the control treatment for meat In all the studied significant cuts, as for the bone and skin of all the studied major cuts, there was a significant decrease in treatments (T2, T3, T4 and T5) compared to treatments (T6, T7, T8 and T9), which decreased significantly compared to the control treatment.

Discussion
The significant improvement that occurred in the weight of the carcass and the weight of the main cuts due to the presence of a large number of active compounds in the leaves of the aloe vera plant, which has a significant role in improving feed consumption and absorption, then increase growth and build tissues and muscles, as the active compound saponins have a significant role in increasing the utilization of nutrients by increasing the permeability of cell walls 12 .
The aloe vera plant also contains many antioxidant vitamins (A, C and E) 13 , amino acids (Kim,14 ) and fatty acids 15 , which play an essential role in increasing feed consumption, then weight gain, and thus improving the characteristics of the carcass.Also, the aloe vera plant increases the growth of beneficial bacteria (Lactobacillus), which produces lactic acid and many other compounds, proving harmful bacteria's growth and thus improving growth and weight gain 16,17 .

Conclusions
The results of the experiment indicated a significant improvement in carcass traits for broilers (carcass weight, dressing percentage without giblet, the relative weight of liver, heart and gizzard, the dressing percentage with giblet, the main cut and secondary cuts) and deboning percentage.The oil extracted locally showed the best results in a significant way compared to the rest of the treatments of the imported oil of the aloe vera plant.