Introduction

The genus Prosopis (Leguminosae, subfamily Mimosoideae) includes about 50 species. Species of Prosopis are often spiny trees, 2–3 m or taller or small shrubs, 30–80 cm tall mostly well adapted to drought and warm weather. These plants are found commonly in northern Africa, Southwestern Asia, West to the Middle East, and in the USA. Prosopis farcta is a native of Asia, distributed from India to Iran (Pasiecznik et al. 2004). P. farcta exhibit a high degree tolerance to salt and plays an essential ecological role in the protection and improvement of soils since its root systems grows vertically as well as laterally. Plants have acceptable nutritional characteristics and capacity to grow under scarce water conditions (Andrade-Montemayor et al. 2011). P. farcta is an invasive weed that is very hard to control (Pasiecznik et al. 2004). P. farcta is well adapted to drought (Harzallah-Skhiri and Ben Jannet 2005). Species belonging to this genus are multipurpose. Plants have been used for cordage, paint, gum (Vernon-Carter et al. 2000; Orozco-Villafuerte 2003), as supplements for feeding ruminants (Andrade-Montemayor et al. 2011), and as medications. P. farcta, commonly known as mesquite, is distributed throughout Iran. It has leaves, spines, beans (pod), and peas (seed). Leaves and beans of P. farcta have been used as a traditional medicine for treatment of some diseases and disorders. Some of these effects have been proven by researchers. In other cases, the plant is used as a folk remedy without academic confirmation of its effects. For example, P. farcta may be used in the treatment of colds, diarrhea, inflammation, measles, diabetes (Al-Aboudi and Afifi 2010; George et al. 2011), skin diseases, and prostate disorders. The plant also may be used in the healing of wounds (Ezike et al. 2010), to reduce cardiac or chest pain (Asadollahi et al. 2010), and to interrupt urine (Ali-Shtayeh and Jamous 2008). Antitumour activity (Robertson et al. 2011), antioxidant capacity (Cardozo et al. 2010; Sharma et al. 2010), antiparasitic and antimicrobial activity (Rahman et al. 2011), and the ability to kill the Leishmania major parasites (Gulalp et al. 2008) have been noted recently. There is no report to show an academic research to evaluate the effects of P. farcta on ostriches. To our knowledge, this is the first study of effects of P. farcta beans on serum biochemical parameters of ostriches. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the P. farcta beans on the health of ostriches.

Materials and Methods

Beans of P. farcta were collected from the outskirts of Zabol district in Sistan balochestan province, Iran, during the summer of 2011 (Fig. 1). Zabol's location is 31°1′47″ north latitude, 61°29′52″ east longitude. Zabol has an average elevation of about 478 m above sea level. The beans were powdered and stored in an air tight container and were used to feed ostriches during experiment. These samples were sent for identification by Agriculture Faculty of Birjand University. The voucher number specimen (herbarium code 74/1525) was deposited in the Birjand University, Iran. Ten blue-neck yearling male ostriches (Struthio camelus), each weighing 70–100 kg, were used in this experiment. The ostriches were clinically healthy before and during the experiment. They were kept in an enclosure with 1,200 m2 of open space and 90 m2 of covered space. Fresh water was freely available to the animals during the study. The ostriches were under veterinary care by specialist veterinarian.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Beans of Prosopis farcta; collected from the outskirts of Zabol district in Sistan balochestan province, Iran

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The experiment was approved by the animal welfare committee of the Agriculture faculty of Birjand University. The birds were fed ad libitum on a diet consisting, on a dry matter basis, of 25 % maize silage, 50 % alfalfa hay, and 25 % of a commercial concentrate. The diet was supplemented with vitamins and minerals (Erfan Darou, Iran). Water was provided ad libitum (Omidi and Ansari nik 2012). The chemical composition of the P. farcta beans (Table 1) was determined according to procedures of AOAC (1984) and Van Soest et al. (1991). Blood samples were taken from the wing vein (Vena cutanea ulnaris) into vacutainers at the beginning and the end of the experiment. Blood samples were obtained between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m., to avoid diurnal influences, after about 12 h of fasting. The first blood sample was named day 0. The second blood sample was collected on day 30. In each case, blood was obtained after ostriches were fed with a mixture of the powdered P. farcta beans and normal food (2.0 kg/day). Serum was prepared by removing the clot from the whole blood sample and subsequent centrifugation at 2500×g for 15 min. Sera were stored at −21 °C until analysis. The biochemical variables were measured using a standard autoanalyser (Hitachi 717, Boehringer. Mannheim, Germany). The level of total serum protein by biuret reaction (Zhu et al. 2012), albumin by bromocresol green dye binding method (Wang et al. 2012), and serum globulin was estimated by subtracting albumin from total protein. Cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (by modified Abell–Kendall/Levey–Brodie method) (Edwards et al. 2011), triglyceride by enzymatic method, uric acid by phosphotungstic acid method, calcium by orthocresolphthalein method, inorganic phosphorus by ammonium molybdate method, and the activity of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and gamma glutamyl transferase were measured by the colorimetric method of Reitman and Frankel. Serum enzyme activities were measured according to the specific reaction of each enzyme by using basic standard techniques (Omidi and Ansari nik 2012). Twice each day, the ostriches were closely observed for any signs of illness or behavioral changes. All results are expressed as means ± standard error of mean (SEM). Raw data were checked for normal distribution using Kolmogorov–Smirnov method. All analyses utilized parametric statistical methods. A value was considered to be statistically significant if the associated P value was less than 0.05. Paired t tests were performed using SPSS software (version 16) (Norusis 1993). The experiment was approved by the animal welfare committee of the Agriculture Faculty of Birjand University.

Table 1 Chemical composition of Prosopis farcta beans
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Results

Chemical properties of P. farcta beans (Table 1) and the effects of P. farcta ingestion on serum biochemical variables (Table 2) are reported.

Table 2 Comparison between two blood sampling (day 0–30) for some serum biochemical parameters, results are expressed as mean ± SEM (n = 10)
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Discussion

P. farcta is a woody perennial and one of the most noxious weeds in Iran. Findings of this study showed that feeding of P. farcta growing in Zabol district can significantly increase serum levels of total protein, globulins, and HDL cholesterol and can reduce serum levels of inorganic phosphorus and γ-GT activity and LDL cholesterol in the 30th day, compared to that of day 0 (Table 2). Total proteins play an important role in transport of vitamins, hormones, enzymes and electrolytes. In our study, total protein values increased on day 30. This accords with earlier observations, which showed that total protein values increased with age in male ostriches until 24–36 months (Quintavalla et al. 2001). Total protein values also tend to increase with age in emus, masai ostriches, and broilers (Samour et al. 2010). Amount of crude protein of P. farcta beans is 9.97 ± 0.45 (Table 1). The protein content of the feed may raise total proteins in ostriches. In our study, globulin values increased n day 30. Juvenile animals have lower concentrations of globulins. Globulins values increased with age (Penninks et al. 2012). Phosphorus is important, together with calcium, in bone metabolism. Phosphorus is derived from diet. Phosphorus values decreased with age. This finding is in agreement with Bovera et al. (2007) findings which showed inorganic phosphate concentrations decreased with age in emus and ostriches. Enzyme activities in birds are variable and originate from different organs. γ-GT activity reduced in the 30th day. Reference intervals of γ-GT have not been established. γ-GT values of 0–10 U/L are considered “normal” (Omidi and Ansari nik 2012).

There were no significant differences between albumin, triglyceride, total cholesterol, calcium, uric acid, AST, and ALT. These findings may indicate that P. farcta supplementation to feed had no effect on the health of ostriches during the experiment. Diet composition plays an important role in the management of cholesterol concentrations in the blood. Some studies showed that plant-based diet as therapeutic applications have beneficial effect if they recognized minimal or no side effects (Singh et al. 2003). P. farcta could be used as a folk remedy for treatment of angina pectoris or to reduce cardiac or chest pain in Iran (Asadollahi et al. 2010). A possible explanation for this action might be extracted of results of some researchers; Asadollahi et al. (2010) who found dose-dependent and endothelium-dependent relaxation effects of P. farcta on thoracic aorta of mice. Al-Jeboory, and Alhusainy (1984) showed alcoholic extract of leaves of P. farcta has a dual action of increase and decrease in blood pressure in vivo and increase in contraction of heart in vitro studies. The major finding of current study was a significant reduction in LDL-cholesterol along with a rise in HDL cholesterol concentration. This finding may reflect the beneficial effects of P. farcta extract on cardiovascular health or reduction of chest pain. Also Narasimhacharya et al. (2010) found that Prosopis juliflora leaf possess antihyperlipidemic properties and reverses the hypercholesterolemic conditions in hypercholesterolemic male albino rats. This research will serve as a base for future studies on the effects of P. farcta on cardiovascular health. This finding, while preliminary, suggests that the efficacy of P. farcta beans powder as a beneficial agent to decrease LDL cholesterol and increase HDL cholesterol concentration. A limitation of this study is that the numbers of ostriches were relatively small. More broadly, research also needed to determine where the effects of P. farcta on fat content of ostrich muscle and serum and hepatic lipids in high fat-fed animals. Chemical examination and isolation of active component of the plant are also suggested.