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. 2023 Jan 27;12(3):560.
doi: 10.3390/foods12030560.

Feeding Aquilaria sinensis Leaves Modulates Lipid Metabolism and Improves the Meat Quality of Goats

Li Min  1 , Gang Wang  2 , Xiong Tong  1 , Huaigu Yang  3 , Hao Sun  4 , Zhifei Zhang  1 , Bin Xu  1 , Dagang Li  1 , Sheng Zhang  5 , Guanghong Li  6
Affiliations

Feeding Aquilaria sinensis Leaves Modulates Lipid Metabolism and Improves the Meat Quality of Goats

Li Min et al. Foods. .

Abstract

Aquilaria (A.) sinensis is a medicinal plant widely grown in tropical South China. Given the abundant pruning waste of its leaves, the use of A. sinensis leaves is valuable. In this study, goats were fed a diet containing 20% A. sinensis leaves. Compared with the basal diet, feeding A. sinensis leaves to goats did not affect growth performance but considerably reduced the feeding cost. Strikingly, feeding A. sinensis leaves resulted in a significant decrease in the blood cholesterol levels (2.11 vs. 1.49 mmol/L, p = 0.01) along with a significant increase in the high-density lipoprotein levels (1.42 vs. 1.82 mmol/L, p = 0.01). There was also a tendency to lower the content of low-density lipoprotein levels in goats (0.78 vs. 0.45 mmol/L, p = 0.09). Furthermore, metabolomics analysis demonstrated that the reduction in cholesterol levels occurred in both the serum (0.387-fold change) and muscle (0.382-fold change) of goats during A. sinensis leaf feeding. The metabolic responses to feeding A. sinensis leaves suggest that the activation of lipolysis metabolism might happen in goats. These observed changes would be conducive to improving animal health and meat quality, ultimately benefiting human health.

Keywords: Aquilaria sinensis leaves; fattening goats; lipid metabolism; meat quality; non-conventional feed.

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Conflict of interest statement

G.L. was employed by the company of Guangdong Chuangsheng Agricultural Development Co. Ltd. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The classification of 418 bioactive compounds in A. sinensis leaves identified in this study.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The contents of amino acids and fatty acids in A. sinensis leaves obtained by the amino acid analyzer and GC ultra gas chromatograph, respectively. (A) The contents of amino acids in A. sinensis leaves. (B) The contents of fatty acids in A. sinensis leaves.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Serum metabolomics analysis reveals changes in the metabolites and their associated signal pathways in response to feeding A. sinensis leaves to goats. (A) The PCA score plot of serum metabolome distribution shows clear separate clusters for goats with different diets. (B) A volcano plot showing differential serum metabolites between the CON and ASL groups. (C) Top 20 differential serum metabolites between the CON and ASL groups. (D) The KEGG enrichment analysis suggests significant changes occurred in the signal pathways of unsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis, linoleic acid metabolism, and α -linolenic acid metabolism. CON: a normal diet; ASL: a diet containing 20% A. sinensis leaves. Red indicates an increase, while green indicates a decrease. 20-HETE: 20-hydroxy-5Z,8Z,11Z,14Z-eicosatetraenoic acid.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Muscle metabolomics analysis reveals changes in the metabolites and the signal pathways during feeding A. sinensis leaves to goats. (A) PCA scores a plot of muscle metabolome distribution according to the diet of goats. (B) A volcano plot showing differential muscle metabolites between CON and ASL groups. (C) Top 20 differential muscle metabolites between the CON and ASL groups. (D) The KEGG enrichment analysis suggests significant changes occurred in the signal pathways of phenylalanine metabolism, lysine degradation, and cysteine and methionine metabolism. CON: a normal diet, ASL: a diet containing 20% A. sinensis leaves. Red indicates an increase, while green indicates a decrease. (±)12-HETE: (±)12-hydroxy-5Z,8Z,10E,14Z-eicosatetraenoic acid, 5-amino-1-imidazole-4-carboxamide: 5-amino-1-[3,4-dihydroxy-5-(hydroxymethyl)oxolan-2-yl]imidazole-4-carboxamide, (±)5-HETE: (±)5-hydroxy-6E,8Z,11Z,14Z-eicosatetraenoic acid.
Figure 5
Figure 5
A schematic diagram of responses to feeding A. sinensis leaves to goats. A. sinensis leaves are rich in linolenic acids, flavonoids, and phenolic acids that play the role of hypolipidemic in goats via the modulation of the lipid metabolism signaling pathway. The reduction in blood cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein levels and the increase in high-density lipoprotein levels in goats in response to the diet strongly implied the activation of lipolysis metabolism during feeding A. sinensis leaves.
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