Therapeutic potential of plant Hibiscus sabdariffa in monogastric animals: A review of the scientific evidence

Recently, plants and their bioactive derivatives such as extracts, essential oils, and secondary metabolites have recently attracted a lot of research attention for the development of novel additives for animal nutrition. This field of research is driven by both the consumers’ demand for safer foods from healthier animals and the industry’s need to identify novel growth promoters to replace the use of banned antibiotics. Among the more than 300 species of Hibiscus plant are Hibiscus sabdariffa L., (sour tea) which has many medicinal uses. In view of these properties, sour tea calyces anthocyanin extract can act as a prophylactic by intervening as a free radical scavenger as well as inducing the phase II drug detoxifcation enzymes. In addition to antioxidant activity that has been reported in most published researches, extracts of its calyces have demonstrated antibacterial and hypocholesterolemic properties. Except calyx, seeds and leaves of this plant are used for both medicinal and non-medicinal purpose, but is usually ignored in the world. Apart from mice, few studies have been done on the effects of Hibiscus in monogastric animals. Therefore, more researches is needed to examine other possible effects of different parts of Hibiscus tea especially in poultry.