The Effects of Purple Corn Pigment on Growth Performance, Blood Biochemical Indices, Meat Quality, Muscle Amino Acids, and Fatty Acids of Growing Chickens

Simple Summary: Anthocyanin is a large type of polyphenol compound that is a strong natural antioxidant and widely exists in natural plant and food fields. Specifically, anthocyanins can relieve oxidative stress by scavenging oxygen free radicals to improve meat quality and extend the shelf life of meat products. Chicken meat contains high-quality protein and other substances important in the human diet and has become quite popular among consumers. Therefore, anthocyanin is a natural pigment that has been extremely valuable. We hypothesized that anthocyanin-rich purple corn pigment can improve growth performance, enhance antioxidant activity, and improve meat quality, muscle amino acid, and fatty acid profiles in chickens. The results of the current study indicate that the consumption of anthocyanin-rich purple corn pigment by growing chickens has the potential to increase growth performance, enhance antioxidant and immune capacities, heighten meat quality, and improve essential amino acids, umami amino acids, and unsaturated fatty acids in muscle. This study investigated the effects of dietary supplementation with different levels of purple corn pigment (PCP) on the growth performance, blood biochemical indices, meat quality, muscle amino acids, and fatty acids of growing chickens. A total of 288 (8 weeks of age) growing Chishui black-bone chickens (body weight, 940 +/- 80 g; mean +/- standard deviation) were randomly divided into 4 groups using a completely randomized design. The four diet groups were as follows: (1) control, basal diet; (2) treatment 1, treatment 2, and treatment 3, which were basal diet with 80, 160, and 240 mg/kg PCP, respectively. The results showed that compared with the control group, the feeding of anthocyanins significantly (p < 0.05) increased the average daily feed intake and average daily gain in chickens. Moreover, chickens receiving 80 mg/kg PCP significantly increased (p < 0.05) plasma total antioxidant capacity, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, catalase, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and albumin concentrations relative to the control group. For meat quality, dietary supplementation with PCP significantly (p < 0.05) reduced the drip loss and water loss rate in breast muscle. Additionally, chickens receiving PCP tended to increase (p < 0.05) the levels of most individual amino acids, essential amino acids, and umami amino acids in the muscle. Specifically, the addition of 80 mg/kg PCP significantly improved (p < 0.05) total polyunsaturated fatty acids in chicken muscle. Accordingly, the consumption of anthocyanin-rich PCP by the growing chickens had the potential to increase the growth performance, enhance antioxidant and immune capacities, increase meat quality, and improve essential and umami amino acids as well as unsaturated fatty acids in the muscle.