Impact of green tea (Camellia sinensis) and epigallocatechin gallate on poultry

SUMMARY

Green tea is of interest due to its high content of pharmacologically active ingredients such as catechins, flavanols, flavadiols, flavonoids and phenolic acids. Green tea contains many polyphenolic compounds such as epicatechin, epicatechin gallate, epigallocatechin, and epigallocatechin gallate. The inclusion of green tea as a feed additive has been shown to improve growth performance and overall health of poultry. Previous studies have shown different results in the rate of improvement in body weight (between 1% and 10%) with the use of different doses of green tea (0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 and 3 mg/kg) in the diet. Using 1–2 mg green tea per kg in the broiler diet improved feed conversion ratio (FCR) by approximately 8%. Abdominal fat was decreased by 10–20% using 0.2–1.0% green tea extract in broiler diets. Improvements in egg production, egg mass and feed conversion values with inclusion rates of 1% green tea in feed, compared to a negative control, have been reported to be 5.6%, 6.8% and 7.8%, respectively. Green tea may improve the antioxidant status of poultry. Epigallocatechin gallate has been found to be over 100 times more effective in neutralising free radicals than vitamin C and 25 times more powerful than vitamin E.

KEYWORDS:

• Green tea
• catechins
• performance
• poultry
• antioxidant

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.