Asian Food Science Journal

Introduction: Edible mushrooms have become increasingly attractive as functional foods for their potential beneficial effects on human health. Many studies have demonstrated that oyster mushroom consumption affects lipid profile and can prevent or treat cardiovascular diseases. This study, for the first time, investigated the cholesterol-lowering properties of the sclerotia of Pleurotus tuberregium in broiler chickens. 

Methods: A total of 30 broiler chickens were shared into six groups of five chickens per group and fed with feed containing different percentages (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25%) of dried powdered sclerotia of Pleurotus tuberregium for 8 weeks. A General Linear Model (GLM) was used to evaluate the impact of different feed supplementation levels on chicken weight and standard analytical methods were used for the protein and biochemical analysis after 8 weeks of feeding.

Results: The body weight decreased progressively with increasing dietary percentage from 0% to 25%. Chickens in the 0% group had the highest weight (3300 g), while those in the 25% group had the lowest weight (2320 g). The highest cholesterol was observed in the 15% group (4.13 ± 0.18), and the lowest was in the 25% group (3.23 ± 0.24). The triglyceride among the treatment groups are statistically significant ((p < 0.05).). The differences in HDL levels between groups are highly significant (p < 0.01), indicating a strong treatment effect of the mushroom on HDL. There is no significant difference in LDL levels between the treatment groups (p > 0.05). This indicated that the lowering effect of the mushroom on the LDL in broiler chickens is not dose dependent. There is a significant difference in VLDL levels across the treatment groups (p < 0.05), suggesting a treatment effect of the mushroom on the VLDL.

Conclusion: This study showed that sclerotia of Pleurotus tuberregium affect the growth performance, protein content, and cholesterol of broiler chickens.