Volume 11, Issue 24, July - December 2025

Dietary supplementation of Justicia secunda oil: effects on growth performance, apparent digestibility, ruminal fermentation and microbiome population of Jamunapari goats

Alagbe John Olujimi^1,2♦

¹Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Biochemistry, Gandhi College of Agriculture, Rajasthan, India
²Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Nutrition and Biochemistry, Sumitra Research Institute, Gujarat, India

^♦Corresponding author
Alagbe John Olujimi, Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Nutrition and Biochemistry, Sumitra Research Institute, Gujarat, India

ABSTRACT

This experiment is aimed at accessing the effect of dietary supplementation of Justicia secunda oil on growth performance, apparent digestibility, ruminal fermentation and microbiome population of Jamunapari goats. Thirty Jamunapari bucks with a mean body weight of 35.77 ± 0.23 kg were used in a completely randomized design for a 60 days feeding period. Experimental treatments included: treatment 1 (control) – basal diet without essential oil; treatment 2: basal diet + 200 mg Justicia secunda oil/kg feed/day and treatment 3 – basal diet + 400 mg Justicia secunda oil/kg feed/day. GCMS analysis of Justicia secunda oil revealed that it contained 29 bioactive compounds dominated by 9,12-Octadecadienoic acid (17.11 %), Hexadecanoic acid (10.89 %), Hexane 1- hexyloxy-5-methyl (9.18 %), Ethyl palmitate (9.07 %), Nonane -3 methyl (8.04 %), 1-Tricosanol (7.66 %), Hexahydrofarnesyl acetone (6.55 %), 10-Azido-1- decanethiol (5.81 %) and 2,4-Di butyl phenol (5.70 %). Dietary supplementation with Justicia secunda oil improved (p < 0.05) average daily body weight gain, feed intake and decreased feed conversion ratio. Justicia secunda oil supplementation also enhanced (p˂0.05) apparent dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, ether extract, acid detergent fibre and neutral detergent fibre digestibility. Crude coriander oil supplementation linearly enhanced (p<0.05) the apparent digestibilities of dry matter, organic matter, non-structural carbohydrates, and fibers, while the high crude coriander oil supplementation level increased apparent crude protein digestibility. Justicia secunda oil supplementation decreased ruminal ammonia and protozoal population, and increased the concentrations (p˂0.05) of total volatile fatty acids, fungi, bacteria, acetate, propionate and butyrate. However, pH, isobutyrate, valerate and isovalerate concentrations were not affected (p˃0.05). In conclusion, Justicia secunda oil up to 400 mg/kg feed/ day had no negative effect on the general performance of goats. Therefore, high dietary supplementation is recommended.

Keywords: Justicia secunda, fermentation, antibiotics, sustainability, performance, growth

Discovery Agriculture, 2025, 11, e16da3157

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Published: 16 September 2025