Dietary Ferulic Acid and Vitamin E can improve meat quality

Oxidative stress causes the oxidation of lipid, protein and metal ions easily to generate these reactive oxygen species (ROS) and result in bad quality of pork meat. Several studies have demonstrated that dietary supplementation with antioxidants have positive effects on meat quality through control ROS balance effectively. In addition, nuclear factor, erythroid 2-like 2 (NFE2L2) pathways is regarded as one of the most important pathways in the cell to prevent them from damage caused by oxidative stress. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation with vitamin E (VE), ferulic acid (FA) and their combination on meat quality, antioxidant capacities, the mRNA expression of genes related with the proteins that protects against oxidative damage (NFE2L2-ARE) pathway in liver and muscle of finishing pigs. A total of 60 barrows ( 75kg of body weight) were randomly allotted to four treatment diets using a 2×2 factorial arrangement with 2 VE supplemental levels (0 or 400 mg/kg) and 2 FA supplemental levels (0 or 100 mg/kg) in basal diets. Each treatment consisted of three replicates (pens) with five pigs each. After 28 days, six pigs per treatment were slaughtered.

The results showed that VE supplementation increased loin eye area of pigs (p<0.05) and FA supplementation increased pH_45min value (p<0.05). The interaction of FA×VE was observed in shear force of longissimus dorsi muscle (p<0.05). Moreover, supplementation with VE decreased hepatic and sarcous malondialdehyde (MDA) content, increased hepatic glutathione (GSH) content and sarcous glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity (p<0.05). Additionally, supplementation with FA increased hepatic GSH-Px activity and decreased sarcous MDA content (p<0.05). However, dietary treatment did not affect the expression of genes related to nuclear factor, erythroid 2-like 2 (NFE2L2) pathways.

In conclusion, dietary supplementation with FA and VE can improve pork quality at a certain degree. This improvement is achieved through the reduction of MDA, elevation activity of GSH-Px and content of GSH induced by the antioxidant activity of FA and VE, but not by activating NFE2L2 pathway under the normal conditions of farming. However, as the results showed that FA or VE added in individually may be better than combined addition for the improvement of pork quality.

Li, Y.J., Li, L.Y., Li, J.L., Zhang, L, Gao, F. and Zhou, G.H. 2015. Effects of Dietary Supplementation with Ferulic Acid or Vitamin E Individually or in Combination on Meat Quality and Antioxidant Capacity of Finishing Pigs Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences; 28(3): 374-381. http://dx.doi.org/10.5713/ajas.14.0432