Punicalagin: a monomer with anti-Eimeria tenella effect from fruit peel of Punica granatum L.

Poultry production was long plagued by coccidiosis, and the development of alternative therapies will make practical sense. In this work, 2 battery experi-ments were designed. In battery experiment 1, the best effect of 7 anticoccidial herbs (Sophora japonica Linn, Citrus aurantium L, leaf of Acer palmatum, bark of Mag-nolia officinalis, fruit peel of Punica granatum L., Eclipta prostrata L., and Piper sarmentosum Roxb.) against Eimeria tenella infection of 21-day-old male Chi-nese Guangxi yellow-feathered chickens were screened out by clinic indexes (bloody feces scores, cecal lesion scores, oocysts output, relative weight gain rate, and survival rate). According to the results from battery experiment 1 and other literature research, we selected 2 monomers which were extracted from fruit peel of Pun-ica granatum L. for further battery experiment 2 which were similar with battery experiment 1. Clinic results showed that Punicalagin had better anticoccidial effect than Ellagic acid. The anticoccidial mechanism explora-tion results of Elisa, antioxidant test, and pathological observation showed that Punicalagin reduced the cecal inflammation, improved the expression of immunoglobu-lin in cecal tissue, improved cecal integrity, and restored its REDOX state. Results of 16S rRNA sequencing anal-ysis showed that Punicalagin also maintained the fecal flora health during E. tenella infection through insignif-icantly increasing the proportion of Lactobacillus and Faecalibacterium as well as significantly reducing the proportion of pathogenic bacteria, Escherichia-Shi-gella. RNA-Seq analysis results suggested that Punicala-gin may play a role in controlling E. tenella infection by interaction with cytochrome P450 family enzymes. Overall, Punicalagin has promising potential as an alter-native therapy for chicken Eimeria tenella infection.

Automated summary

This study screened out seven herbs with the best effect against Eimeria tenella infection in poultry and further explored the mechanism of Punicalagin during the infection. The results showed that Punicalagin had a promising anticoccidial effect, reducing inflammation, improving immune function, and maintaining a healthy gut microbiota.