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Implication of Natural Compounds in Animal Wellbeing

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A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Products Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2019) | Viewed by 12054

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Doriana Tedesco

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Guest Editor

Department of Environmental Science and Policy, Universita degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
Interests: assessment of plants/herbs, extracts and their by-products as feed additives; standardisation; in vitro study; animal studies (ADME); antimicrobial activity in gut; efficacy and quality/safety of the animal product; toxic adverse effect

Dr. Aldo Tava

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Guest Editor

Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’economia agraria-Centro di ricerca Zootecnia e Acquacoltura (CREA-ZA), viale Piacenza 29, 26900 Lodi, Italy
Interests: natural products; structure elucidation and quantification; biosynthesis of triterpenic glycosides in medicago spp, chemical genetic of transgenic plants; biological properties of new compounds and their implication in pharmacology and agro industry

Special Issue Information

Dera Colleagues,

Medicinal plants, herbs and their extracts are increasingly being used for providing multiple health beneﬁts in animals, notably for prophylactic purposes and therapeutic treatments. Their use was further increased to reduce the use of antibiotics and other synthetic drugs. They can adequately stimulate the local defensive responses, favorably influence resident gastrointestinal microflora, improve nutrient digestion and absorption, optimize the growth and health status protecting animals against physio-pathological disturbances. These functional properties can contribute to increase the animal wellbeing in companion animals and in food producing animals. Moreover, their use can improve the quality of livestock products.

We warmly invite our colleagues to submit their original contributions to this Special Issue of Molecules. Welcome submissions should include any aspects of the use of natural products and their beneficial effects on animal wellbeing.

Innovative contribution on the use of natural compounds, including their preventive and therapeutic aspects, their efficacy, toxicity and safety assessment, their anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory and antioxidant effects, as well as standardization and regulatory implications, will be considered.

Prof. Dr. Doriana Tedesco
Dr. Aldo Tava
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Animal wellbeing
Natural products
Plant extracts
Secondary metabolite
Health promoting
Feed additives

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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9 pages, 1077 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

In Vitro Anthelmintic Activity of Saponins from Medicago spp. Against Sheep Gastrointestinal Nematodes

by Michela Maestrini, Aldo Tava, Simone Mancini, Doriana Tedesco and Stefania Perrucci

Molecules 2020, 25(2), 242; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25020242 - 07 Jan 2020

Cited by 28 | Viewed by 3703

Abstract

Gastrointestinal strongyle nematodes (GIS) are included among the most important parasites of small ruminants. The widespread drug resistance and drug residues in products of animal origin have increased the interest in the search for natural compounds with anthelmintic activity as a valid alternative to current synthetic drugs. The aim of the present investigation was to test the ‘in vitro’ anthelmintic activity of saponins and prosapogenins from different Medicago species, selected for their importance as a forage crop worldwide for animal feeding. From these plants, saponin mixtures were extracted, purified and used at scalar concentrations to evaluate their anthelmintic activities against sheep gastrointestinal strongyles (GISs), by the egg hatch test. Treated and untreated controls were used as the comparison. Data were statistically analyzed, and EC₅₀ and EC₉₀ were also calculated. All saponins and prosapogenins showed inhibiting effects on GIS eggs in a concentration-dependent manner. At higher concentrations, most of them showed an efficacy comparable to the reference drug (Thiabendazole 3 µg/mL) (P < 0.001). With 1.72 mg/mL EC₅₀ and 3.84 mg/mL EC₉₀, saponin from M. polymorpha cultivars Anglona was the most active. Obtained results encourage further studies aimed at evaluating the efficacy ‘in vivo’ of saponins which resulted as most effective ‘in vitro’ in this study. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Implication of Natural Compounds in Animal Wellbeing)

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12 pages, 1397 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Chemical Constituents of Salix babylonica L. and Their Antibacterial Activity Against Gram-Positive and Gram-Negative Animal Bacteria

by Eddy Nathalye González-Alamilla, Manases Gonzalez-Cortazar, Benjamín Valladares-Carranza, Marco Antonio Rivas-Jacobo, Camelia Alejandra Herrera-Corredor, Deyanira Ojeda-Ramírez, Adrian Zaragoza-Bastida and Nallely Rivero-Perez

Molecules 2019, 24(16), 2992; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24162992 - 18 Aug 2019

Cited by 23 | Viewed by 4606

Abstract

The principle of animal wellbeing, which states that animals should be free from pain, injury, and disease, is difficult to maintain, because microorganisms are most frequently found to be resistant or multi-resistant to drugs. The secondary metabolites of plants are an alternative for the treatment of these microorganisms. The aim of this work was to determine the antibacterial effect of Salix babylonica L. hydroalcoholic extract (SBHE) against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes, and identify the compounds associated with the activity. The SBHE showed activity against the three strains, and was subjected to a bipartition, obtaining aqueous fraction (ASB) with moderate activity and organic fraction (ACSB) with good activity against the three strains. The chromatographic separation of ACSB, allowed us to obtain ten fractions (F1AC to F10AC), and only three showed activity (F7AC, F8AC and F10AC). In F7AC, five compounds were identified preliminary by GC-MS, in F8AC and F10AC were identified luteolin (1) and luteolin 7-O-glucoside (2) by HPLC, respectively. The best antibacterial activity was obtained with F7AC (Listeria monocytogenes; MIC: 0.78 mg/mL, MBC: 0.78 mg/mL) and F8AC (Staphylococcus aureus; MIC: 0.39 mg/mL; MBC: 0.78 mg/mL). The results indicated that the compounds obtained from SBHE can be used as an alternative treatment against these microorganisms and, by this mechanism, contribute to animal and human health. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Implication of Natural Compounds in Animal Wellbeing)

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Review

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20 pages, 870 KiB

Open AccessReview

Iron Transport Tocopheryl Polyethylene Glycol Succinate in Animal Health and Diseases

by Ajay Srivastava, Rajiv Lall, Jamil Talukder, Dan DuBourdieu and Ramesh C. Gupta

Molecules 2019, 24(23), 4289; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24234289 - 25 Nov 2019

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3386

Abstract

Gut health is the starting place for maintaining the overall health of an animal. Strategies to maintain gut health are, thus, an important part in achieving the goal of improving animal health. A new strategy to do this involves two molecules: the iron transport protein ovotransferrin (IT) and α-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol succinate (TPGS), which result in the novel formulation of ITPGS. These molecules help reduce gut pathogens, while enhancing the absorption and bioavailability of therapeutic drugs, phytomedicines, and nanomedicines. This, in turn, helps to maintain normal health in animals. Maintaining the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) in its normal condition is key for successful absorption and efficacy of any nutrient. A compromised GIT, due to an imbalance (dysbiosis) in the GIT microbiome, can lead to an impaired GI barrier system with impaired absorption and overall health of the animal. The molecules in ITPGS may address the issue of poor absorption by keeping the GI system healthy by maintaining the normal microbiome and improving the absorption of nutrients through multiple mechanisms involving antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, and antimicrobial activities. The ITPGS technology can allow the dose of active pharmaceutical or herbal medicine to be significantly reduced in order to attain equal or better efficacy. With complimentary actions between IT and TPGS, ITPGS presents a novel approach to increase the bioavailability of drugs, phytoconstituents, nutrients, and nanomedicines by enhanced transport to the tissues at the site of action, while reducing gut pathogen load. The ITPGS approach appears to be a novel strategy for maintaining the health of animals by manipulation of microbiota. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Implication of Natural Compounds in Animal Wellbeing)

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