THE PERFORMANCE OF BROILERS GIVEN EUGENOL OF CLOVE LEAF ESSENTIAL OIL AS A FEED ADDITIVE

Abstract

Clove (Syzygium aromaticum L.) leaf extraction can produce 2-4% essential oil, containing 70-90% eugenol. Clove essential oil has biological activities, such as antibacterial, antifungal, insecticidal and antioxidant properties, and is used traditionally as a savoring agent and antimicrobial material in food. It becomes the basis for this research on the use of eugenol of clove leaf essential oil as a feed additive for broilers. Experimental treatments consisted of E0 (without the use of eugenol), E1 (0.5% eugenol in feed), E2 (1% eugenol in feed), and E3 (1.5% eugenol in feed). The addition of 0.5 to 1.5% eugenol in feed significantly reduced feed intake compared to the control, in which the higher the use of eugenol in feed was, the lower the feed intake would be. The addition of 0.5-1% eugenol of clove leaf essential oil numerically increased body weight gain of broilers, but not significantly different between the three treatments, while the addition of 1.5% eugenol significantly decreased body weight gain compared to the other three treatments. The addition of 1% eugenol in feed significantly increased the final body weight compared to the control, but not significantly different from the addition of 0.5% eugenol, while the addition of 1.5% eugenol significantly decreased the final body weight compared to other treatments. The addition of 0.5-1.5% eugenol in feed significantly reduced feed conversion compared to control, but not significantly different between the three treatments. The addition of 1% eugenol of clove leaf essential oil in feed provided optimum body weight gain and final body weight for broilers at 6 weeks of age of 2035.00 ± 66.52 g/chicken and 2185.00 ± 66.52g/chicken, respectively with feed conversion of 1.61 ± 0.06.

Keywords

• poultry
• essential oil
• eugenol
• feed additive
• treatment