CHICORY- Botanical of the Month

School of Botanicals by XVET

August 30, 2021January 3, 2022

Did you know that the term ‘phytogenic’ consists of 3 different groups: Essential oils, tinctures and plant oils?

Plant oils: Mechanically processed product of the plant.

Tinctures: Extracted form of plant material.

Essential Oils: Concentrated forms of substances derived from plants.

History of Chicory:

Chicory (Cichorium intybus) has its reputation mostly because of its use in food – and not so much in feed. Traditionally, Chicory has been used in some areas of the world to treat diseases at first. Although investigation on Chicory in feed is quite fresh there has been several studies investigating the positive effects of this multi-purpose plant in farm animals

The most important strength of Chicory is coming from the fructans source of it.

Strenght of Chicory:

Fructans are polysaccharides with health promoting effects as prebiotic. Commercially, there are two different type of fructans available: FOS and inulin. Both have prebiotic activities; providing energy for the gut microbiome and enhancing gut integrity. FOS is a generic term for all fructo-oligosaccharides whereas inulin-type of Fructose (plant based) are shorter and have diverse structures. It is worth mentioning that FOS and Inulin are often used singular and Inulin often contains a mixture of both short- and long-chain fructans.

Some plants such as Chicory are well known due to the rich content of fructans (inulin, FOS) from which farm animal would get the most benefit of adding it to the feed.

Chicory in Feed

Adding Chicory to the feed has other benefits such as anti-parasitic effects which are mostly studied in ruminants when using Chicory as forage. Chicory has anti-bacterial activities as well: In broiler farming, Chicory can be beneficial due to its positive effect on the gut microbiota, improving broiler performance and health status because it can enhance the lipid metabolism and protect the liver, too.

Does any XVET product has Chicory?

At XVET you can get the benefit of this multi-purpose phytogenic by adding Bacflora BR to the broiler feed. Bacflora BR is a synbiotic product of XVET enriched by natural Chicory powder.