ISSUE FOCUS 42 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE March 2022 Once the active components are produced, they have to be stored and processed to deliver the expected effect of the PFA in the animal. EOs are, by definition, volatile components, so there may be losses during storage (degradation by oxidation, volatilization, light) or processing of the feed (heating) if they are included in pellets. To prevent this phenomenon, it is possible to encapsulate the EOs. The kind of encapsulation matrix and method differ depending on the target. EOs can be encapsulated to be protected from losses during the feed production process, to be slowly released to have the active components diffusing in the digestive tract, or even to make sure the delivery is done in the gut and not before via rumen by-pass encapsulation. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NATURAL AND NATURE-IDENTICAL? Some phytogenics products available on the market are based on nature-identical substances, whereas some others are from natural origin. This happens particularly for essential oils. In Nature, EOs are composed of major and minor components that create the unique “fingerprint” of the plant's essential oil. As seen above, the composition of plant extracts can vary, so it is not easy to standardize the EOs composition and guarantee the stability of the PFA characteristics between batches. To reduce the variability of the EOs composition, the identified lead active substances amongst the major components, such as thymol in thyme oil or cinnamaldehyde in cassia oil, have been chemically reproduced. However, PFAs using natural plant extracts show a wider range of modes of action in animal nutrition than chemical nature-identical substances. This advantage is based on the synergistic effects of all agents within a plant extract, which have not been reduced to the effects of a single lead substance (Figure 2). Table 1 shows that EOs, like all plant extracts, should be carefully selected according to a specific target, as they have different potencies. In this example, aldehic EO reduces ammonia (NH3) production more efficiently than phenolic EO. It is of particular interest when aiming to reduce the NH3 in the rumen, leading to a better protein efficiency of the cow. It participates in the increased nutrient supply for the animal, improving milk production and protein yield while reducing milk urea nitrogen. Figure 2. Differences in mass spectrometry profile of cinnamaldehyde (nature-identical, in pink) and cassia oil (natural, in black), showing minor components present in the latter (©Delacon) Table 1: Effect of different essential oils on the ammonia production (Delacon, in vitro) Essential oil family Phenolic EO 1 (nature-identical) Phenolic EO 2 (nature-identical) Phenolic EO 2 (natural) Aldehic EO 1 (nature-identical) Aldehic EO 1 (natural) Aldehic EO 1 (natural, encapsulated) Effect on NH3 production -12.5% -17.5% -30.0% -36.5% -47.0% -50.0%
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