Review Paper
Year: 2023 | Month: February | Volume: 10 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 226-244
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijrr.20230229
Anti-Nutritional Factors in Animal Feedstuffs: A Review
Iyakutye Jacob Nte1, Onyema Joseph Owen1, Friday Owuno2
1Department of Animal Science, Rivers State University, P. M. B. 5080, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
2Department of Food Science and Technology, Rivers State University, P. M. B. 5080, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Corresponding Author: Iyakutye Jacob Nte
ABSTRACT
Plants naturally co-exist with their predators and have therefore developed certain defense mechanisms against them. These include production of secondary metabolites, which are not directly involved in their growth processes (as opposed to primary metabolites), but act as deterrents to their predators. Some of these metabolites, known as anti-nutritional factors, affect the nutritive value of forages and feedstuffs, and hence animals (including humans) that feed on them. Although they are generally not lethal, their effects may be contrary to optimum nutrition, making them undesirable for human and animal nutrition as they may interfere with feed utilization, health and productivity of animals. Their wide distribution in plants is determined by age, cultivar, geographic distribution, and storage condition after harvesting. Certain characteristics which they possess, together with other reasons make them to be found at some levels in almost all plants and plant products used as animal feedstuffs. The major classes of anti-nutritional factors include glycosides, alkaloids, protease inhibitors, amylase inhibitors, phenolic compounds, phytohaemagglutinins, phytates, terpenes/triterpenes, non-protein amino acids, oxalates, and glucosinolates. The varied chemical structure and composition of these metabolites which are diverse in their abundance in different plants and their products, result in an array of direct and indirect effects which impinge on animal productivity and health. They occur in various quantities in plants, with alkaloids as the most abundant in higher plants. Alkaloids are among the most important drugs used by human beings and have also been adjudged to be the most useful and most dangerous products of nature. The effects of these anti-nutrients may be physical such as alopecia or physiological such as disruption of metabolic reactions and synthesis of important biochemical components of tissues. Their structures, occurrence, effects, and other related issues are reviewed herein.
Keywords: Secondary metabolites, Anti-nutritional factors, Animal Feedstuffs, Molecular and Cellular Targets, Phytoanticipins and Phytoalexins.
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