ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1545729
This article is part of the Research TopicNatural Compounds/Products and Livestock Productivity: Enhancing Antioxidant Levels, Gut Health, Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions, and Disease ControlView all 37 articles
Effects of diet supplemented with water extracts of Artemisia annua L. on small intestinal immune and antioxidative indexes in lambs
Provisionally accepted
- Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, China
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Introduction: Artemisia annua L., an herbaceous plant, belong to the Artemisia genus within the Asteraceae family. Due to its significant medicinal properties, it has emerged as a focal point of research in the field of animal production. In the present study, the responses of intestinal immune and antioxidative indexes, and the related gene expression to water extracts of Artemisia annua L. (WEAA) supplementation in diet were profiled in lambs.In total, 32 female lambs (Dorper × Han), with eight replicates per group, were randomly assigned to four treatment groups. These groups were created by supplementing 0, 500, 1000, and 1500 mg/kg WEAA to the basal diet, respectively.The results showed that WEAA addition increased sIgA, IgG, IL-1β, IL-2 and IL-4 levels in the duodenal and jejunal mucosa in a manner that was dependent on the dosage (p < 0.05). Moreover, WEAA promoted the expression of factors (TLR4, MyD88, IKKβ, IκBα, NF-κB p50, NF-κB p65, IL-1β and IL-4) related with the TLR4 / NF-κB pathway, thus improving small intestinal immune function, thereby showing peak effects in the 1000 mg/kg WEAA group. Additionally, WEAA supplementation also enhanced antioxidative function through the Nrf2/Keap1 pathway in the small intestinal mucosa, particularly by increasing GSH-Px and CAT concentrations and decreasing MDA content in a manner that was dependent on the dosage (p < 0.05), with maximal effects observed in the 1000 mg/kg group. Furthermore, expressions levels of Nrf2, GSH-Px and HO-1 in the small intestine increased quadratically (p < 0.05), while Keap1 expression levels exhibited a downward quadratic trend (p < 0.10).In summary, the optimal dietary addition of 1000 mg/kg WEAA significantly enhanced intestinal immune function, antioxidant capacity, and the expression of related genes in the intestinal mucosa of lambs.
Keywords: Water extracts of Artemisia annua L, lamb, small intestine, Immune index, Antioxidative index
Received: 15 Dec 2024; Accepted: 09 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gang, Gao, Zhao, Jin, Xing, Hong, Yan, Xu and Shi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yuanqing Xu, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, China
Binlin Shi, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, China
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