Solid state fermentation of Ginkgo Biloba leaves and its effects on antioxidant capacity and breast muscle quality of broilers.

Ginkgo biloba leaves contain many kinds of active ingredients, which can affect the metabolism of animals to a certain extent, thus promoting the growth performance and disease prevention and resistance of animals. After microbial fermentation, Ginkgo biloba leaves can better retain and release their active ingredients, and achieve full utilization of biomass, making them suitable as feed additives. In this study, we conducted an orthogonal optimization experiment with 7 factors and 3 levels using Ginkgo biloba leaves as the substrate, employing two probiotic strains Bacillus licheniformis and B. natto as the fermentation strains, respectively. The results indicated that the fermented leaves were enriched with probiotics and demonstrated enhanced levels of flavonoids, total amino acids, crude protein and aroma substances. Specifically, the flavonoid content increased by 16.7% and 10.6%, total amino acids by 17.22% and 31.05%, total protein by 43.83% and 58.74%, and protease activities reached 1307 U/g and 1510 U/g, for B. licheniformis and B. natto, respectively. Furthermore, supplementation with 0.3-0.6% (mass fraction) of the Ginkgo biloba leaf fermentation product in broiler diets significantly improved the feed efficiency of brolier chickens at 21-42 d and 1-42 day. Through biological solid-state fermentation and conversion, the biological activity, nutritional value, and palatability of Ginkgo biloba leaves were significantly enhanced. When used as a feed additive for Ginkgo biloba leaves, it promoted the development of thymus and spleen, improved the antioxidant capacity of broiler chickens, significantly increased the pH of breast muscle for 24 h, reduced shear force, and significantly reduced the level of cooking loss of breast muscle, thus expanding a new way for efficient and high-value utilization of Ginkgo biloba leaves.