Effects of Wormwood (<i>Artemisia montana</i>) Essential Oils on Digestibility, Fermentation Indices, and Microbial Diversity in the Rumen

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of essential oil (EO) from three Korean wormwood (Artemisia Montana) plants on in vitro ruminal digestibility, fermentation, and microbial diversity. Dried (0.5 g) soybean meal (SBM) or bermudagrass hay (BGH) were incubated in buffered rumen fluid (40 mL) for 72 h with or without EO (5 mg/kg) from Ganghwa (GA), Injin (IN), or San (SA) wormwood (Experiment 1). Both SA and IN improved (p p p Ruminococcus albus and Streptococcus bovis in SBM. Experiment 2 examined different doses (0, 0.1, 1, and 10 mg/kg) of SA, the most promising EO from Experiment 1. Applying SA at 10 mg/kg gave the highest DMD (L; p p R. albus population (Q; p < 0.05) in SBM. Therefore, SA was better than GA and IN at improving rumen fermentation, and the 0.1 to 1 and 10 mg/kg doses improved ruminal fermentation and in vitro digestibility of SBM and BGH, respectively.

Keywords

• essential oil
• in vitro rumen fermentation
• rumen microbe
• wormwood