Morinda (Noni) fruits: Nutritional substitute in poultry production

Abstract

Backyard poultry farming is considered to be a profitable complementary enterprise in agriculture and constitutes an important activity for accelerating the tribal economy. Feed supplements in poultry production has significant role to improve the productivity of chicks. Now a day the food safety and security is more seriously considered than before. The medicinal plants and herbs have been used for many years in the treatment of various diseases in animals and human beings. The use of medicinal plants extracts in poultry for growth and immunity has been reported by many workers (Narimani-Rad et al., 2011; Javed et al., 2009). Now-a-days, medicinal plants extracts are used in animal feed as growth promoters. Due to prohibition of most of the antimicrobial feed additives in animal/ poultry feed and also due to their residual effects in animals/ poultry, plant extracts are becoming more popular. These feed additives act as antibacterial, antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, antifungal, analgesic, insecticidal, anticoccidial and growth promoters and these plant extracts compete with the synthetic drugs. Morinda commonly known as noni has a rich history in Ayurveda and grows widely throughout the coastal regions of many countries. Its fruit and leaves have been consumed as traditional foods in some area of Southeast Asia and in the Pacific islands. Reports suggested that the fruit has been used as a feed supplement for livestock and poultry (Sunder et al., 2011). Mroinda commonly known as Noni, has been used for treatment of various kinds of illnesses and as a growth tonic in human being (Bruggnecate, 1992; Solomon, 1999). Morinda is a minor forest produce, it belongs to Rubiaceae family its Sanskrit name is 'Ayushka' means longevity. Phytodiversity in morinda is quite wide spread over species in the genus Morinda, Intra-species variation is also large. The species found in Gujarat especially in Panchmahal district is Morinda tomentosa locally known as 'Aledi'. It is found naturally growing in forest areas on the field's bund, road side and waste land mostly in Jambughoda, Halol, Kalol, Ghogamba, and Godhra Talukas of Panchmahal district. These talukas are tribal dominated. As tribal people depend on their surrounded natural resources for their day to day requirement like food, feed, fodder, fuel fiber, fragrant and phytomedicine. They use almost all parts of Morinda for different purposes viz. root paste is applied for antidote against venom of poisonous insects, its decoction is used to cure chronic skin diseases, leaves are used with worm oil for control of swelling and