Health promoting properties of eggs: D. Narahari et al. XI th European Symposium on the Quality of Eggs and Egg Products Doorwerth, The Netherlands, 23-26 May 2005 194 Antioxidant, cholesterol reducing, immunomodulating and other health promoting properties of herbal enriched designer eggs D. NARAHARI*, P. MICHEALRAJ, A. KIRUBAKARAN and T. SUJATHA Department of Poultry Science, Madras Veterinary College, Tamil Nadu Veterinary & Animal Sciences University, Chennai-600 007, India *dnarahari@rediffmail.com Keywords: designer eggs; herbal enriched designer eggs; antioxidant properties; serum lipid profile; yolk cholesterol; N3 PUFA; immunoglobulins; human health Summary Standard Designer Eggs (SDE) were produced by feeding hens with feeds rich in N3 Fatty acids, Vitamin E, Selenium and Carotenoid pigments. Along with the SDE, 5 different varieties of Herbal Enriched Designer Eggs (HEDE), were produced by incorporating in hens' diet 5g/Kg of Garlic pearls, Fenugreek seeds, Bay leaves or Basil leaves or 1g/Kg Spirulina. The antioxidant, cholesterol lowering, immunomodulating and other health promoting properties of the eggs and the immune status in the birds were estimated. All the herbs, especially the Bay leaves had increased the antioxidant property of the eggs. The yolk cholesterol level was significantly reduced in the SDE as well as in the HEDE, especially due to the Basil leaves and Garlic supplementation. The immune status of the hens as well as the Immunoglobulin levels in the eggs were increased due to all treatments, especially by Fenugreek and Basil leaves. Except Garlic, other treatments produced consumer acceptable eggs. The N3 PUFA levels in all the 6 SDE were significantly increased, with proportionate reduction in the saturated FA level; resulting in favourable N3/N6 ratios. Consumption of SDE and HEDE produced healthy changes in the serum lipid profile in human volunteers. Introduction Several Designer Eggs (DE) like N3 PUFA, Vitamin E, Selenium, Lutein, Folic acid and Iron rich eggs were developed earlier by many workers (Jiang and Sim, 1993; Farrell, 1998 and Leeson, 2004). In India Narahari et al. (2004) has developed HEDE, which are not only rich in N3 PUFA, Vitamin E, Selenium and Carotenoids; but also rich in herbal active principles like Allicin, Euginol, Natural antioxidants, Quercitin, Murrayanol and others. This experiment was conducted to further enrich the SDE with herbal active principles, by supplementing selective herbs in the hens' feed. Materials and methods A biological study of 12 weeks duration was carried out using 280 commercial layers (BV 300) 30 weeks of age in cages. They were randomly divided into 28 groups of 10 hens each. Four replicates were randomly allotted to each of the 7 dietary treatments namely, T1 : Control fed with regular layer mash T2 : Standard Designer Feed (SDF): supplemented with flaxseed, fish oil, vitamin E, Selenium and carotenoids T3 : SDF + 5g/Kg Garlic pearls T4 : SDF + 5g/Kg Fenugreek seeds T5 : SDF + 5g/Kg Bay / Curry leaves ( Murrya Koeingii ) T6 : SDF + 5g/Kg Basil leaves ( Oscimum sanctum) T7 : SDF + 1g/Kg Spirulina The hens were fed ad libitum with respective feeds from 31-42 weeks of age.