This month’s newsletter was curated and edited by: Dr. J.W. Holloway, Dr. Del Davis and their Teams

Synopsis

Historical Perspective

Prior to the Civil War (1860-1865), a human health condition was described by Addison (1855) that became known as Addison’s or Biermer’s anemia in humans.  Thomas Addison died in 1860 just a few after writing about his findings.    The condition was characterized by palor, shortness of breath, jaundice, weight loss, and muscle spasms. The causes of the disease were, until the 1920’s unknown and had no name attached to it, and at this point, no causing factors were evident. Causes were unidentified.    Some people in the general population thought that the cause was a bite from a vampire.  While epidemiology reports of the 1920’s era may not a reliable source of human health statistics, the condition was generally fatal.  In the 1920s, it was reported that 6000 people in the U.S. died annually from the disease called pernicious anemia. George Whipple (1926), who studied anemia in dogs, was the first to design a protocol to treat simple anemia in canines. 

This was just prior to 1920.  He set out to discover how to reverse the anemic condition in dogs through dietary amelioration.  Whipple bled the dogs out to near death until they were severely anemic and fed them different special diets while noting the nutritional effects on recovery. He found that dogs recovered quickly from induced anemia as dogs that ate large amounts of liver recovered quickly from the excessive induced blood loss. Whipple was also aware in 1920 that pernicious anemia in humans had similar physical symptoms. Pernicious anemia was incurable, so he extrapolated his ‘dog experimental results’ to a human application and found that consumption of liver had positive effects on people suffering from what was then known as pernicious anemia.  Whipple (1920) published his paper on how eating liver resulted in the improvement of health of humans known to exhibit the symptoms of pernicious anemia.

Minot and Murphey (1920) investigated a factor in the liver that was apparently responsible for improving anemia in dogs and concluded that the factor responsible was iron.  They also isolated a soluble factor in the liver that appeared to be responsible for the positive improvement effects on pernicious human anemia. It was mere coincidence that the simultaneous discoveries for treatment for common iron deficiency anemia and pernicious anemia could be effectively cured by eating the same food, animal liver, from beef or pork.  The findings of Minot and Murphey were published in 1926.   Minot and Murphey, along with Whipple, shared the Nobel Peace Prize for medicine in 1934 for researching and publishing treatment protocols for pernicious anemia.  The 100-year old canard that pernicious anemia was caused by a bite from a vampire was finally laid entirely to rest. Edwin Cohn (1928) developed a liver extract that could be administered either orally or injected hypodermically which proved to be 50-100 times more potent than the cooked or fresh liver.

This was an easier and much more effective protocol for the treatment of pernicious anemia in humans. Ricks et al. (1948) isolated the active crystalline component from Cohn’s liver extract and named it Vitamin B_12.  Dorothy Hodgkin (1956) determined and published the structure for Vitamin B_12.  The work of Hodgkin led to methods of commercial production of Vitamin B₁₂ by the late 1950s.  Hodgkin also demonstrated that Vitamin B₁₂ indeed contained cobalt. Soon after, ruminant research with sheep published by Keener et al. (1950) focused on cobalt. The extremely accurate analytical procedures for determining B₁₂ in dry feed, gut food mass, or animal tissue contents had not yet become available. Keener and his colleagues carried out an experiment to explain the role of cobalt in the nutrition of ruminants.  The work of these workers demonstrated that animals on very low cobalt rations developed marked unhealthy deficiency symptoms characteristic of cobalt. All animals that received supplementals containing cobalt remained healthy.

Cobalt supplemented animals gained seven times as much weight and were voluntarily consuming five times more concentrates and six times more hay. The animals receiving cobalt drank two times more water.   Wool production in untreated sheep, not fed cobalt, was only 62 percent that of those receiving supplemental cobalt. In keeping the review strategy of Smith and Loosli (1957), there are many details in dealing with either cobalt or Vitamin B₁₂ that has been extensively reviewed elsewhere and much-published data is currently outdated and supplanted with more accurate data because of newer analytical technology prevalent in the 21^st century.  As of 1956, Smith and Loosli (1957) pointed out that cobalt had been reviewed by Russel (1944), Maynard and Smith (1947), Beeson (1950), Marston (1952), and Underwood (1956), as well as others. 

In the 10 years preceding and including 1956, the close association between Vitamin B₁₂ and elemental cobalt had just been described. Hodgkin’s description of the B₁₂ molecule occurred in 1956, offering absolute visible proof that vitamin B₁₂ had the cofactor cobalt at its core. Cobalt sulfate and cobalt carbonate relieved the deficiency symptoms when administered orally. When administered intravenously, cobalt sulfate brought about a slow response if administered daily or if in large enough quantities, two times per week demonstrated some efficacy. B-complex vitamins, liver extract, certain amino acids, a cobalt-free mineral mixture., fresh ruminal liquor, and fresh raw milk were without value in relieving the deficiency symptoms. Under experimental conditions, Smith and Loosli (1957) concluded that calves required 20 and 40 mcg. of vitamin B₁₂ per kilogram of dry matter consumed. 

Commentary

The biology of each extrinsic trait is the groundwork to set the stage for discussions of production system elements that impact each trait. Because of the pervasive impact of total fat content and fatty acid profile on beef quality, the effect of the two issues is throughout the meat. The two, impact beef quality, especially aspects concerning appearance, tenderness, juiciness, flavor, and healthfulness, the biological considerations and the production system elements affecting these two issues are distributed throughout this text. This first section will focus on the antioxidant properties of some plant’s usage in feed, and their relation to the meat palatability. The process and production optimization do further define that there are different active components in each source plant, which decide the attributes of its resulting extract. Therefore, considering that several herbs and spices have antioxidant properties since they contain phenolic acids, phenolic diterpenes, or volatile oils. Interestingly, it is well known that an illustration of this statement is the Thyme and Oregano, namely, both antioxidants are elevating oils. 

In our context, various distinct antioxidants were shown to increase the taste of red meat, when included in the diet of the animal, hence the inclusion of aromatic herbs and essential oils. Why? Because radical chain reactions can break free thanks to the presence of phenolic compounds. But then, what is the origin of these macromolecular changes, the meat’s aromas, on the molecular level?  One of EnhancedExchange priorities is to reduce the environmental impact that our products and by-products can have on a given region. Indeed, our red meat resultant product is of a quality process and feed content, that undergoes scientific deliberations for which we have several objectives and leading tracks to go through. More precisely, we want to evaluate the influence of supplemental Co acetate, essential oils, and their interaction on beef cattle growth, health, and beef quality in a natural program. Another trail to investigate would be to study and so determine the effect of cobalt on beef quality. Holloway and Wu (2019) reviewed the literature concerning production system elements impacting red meat quality.

Although no research has been published indicating the role of dietary cobalt in red meat quality, Holloway, and Wu (2019) showed that Cobalt plays a central role in red meat tenderness, juiciness and flavor based on several proofs. The first evidence is the fuel the animal lives on is primarily from volatile fatty acids, not glucose as in nonruminants since ruminants ferment their feed. In like manner, ruminants have an obligate requirement for glucose for brain function, milk production, and intramuscular fat production. Therefore, ruminants are borderline diabetics and rely on gluconeogenesis for these functions. Not to mention that gluconeogenesis in ruminants requires vitamin B12. Another attestation of the intrinsic cause to effect relation between cobalt and red meat is that intramuscular fat requires glucose. In contrast, other fat depots in the ruminant can be synthesized from acetic acid. Not only ruminants synthesize glycogen, it is the only carbohydrate energy store in the body, from glucose, but glycogen is also required for sustained acidification of muscle postmortem. The last but not the least, A steady decline in muscle PH is required to free (Ca) calcium, which is required for the activation of protases postmortem that tenderizes red meat.

If you would like more details to learn about this track, we recommend that you read these (2) two books that you can find in (2) two volumes respectively at Book 1 and Book 2

Analysis

Essential Oils as a Feed Additive

Essential oils as feed additives have been reported to improve feed efficiency and animal productivity in stressful environments as a result of their antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and digestive modulatory impacts on ruminal and systemic metabolism (Bakkali et al., 2008; and Benchaar et al., 2008). Their antimicrobial activity has been reported to decrease ruminal biohydrogenation and consequently increase the deposition of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in muscles (Martineau et al., 2008; and Scollan et al., 2001a,b). These researchers demonstrated that this effect exists for a variety of essential oils from diverse plant sources. Oregano and thyme are two oils that elevate antioxidant potential through the component phenolic terpenes such as thymol and carvacrol (Bakkali et al., 2008). Each source plant has specific but varying active ingredients that dictate the characteristics of its extract.

When using a blend, essential oils possibly have a synergistic effect, influencing their mode of action in ruminal and animal metabolism thereby influencing beef quality. Rivaroli et al. (2016) reported that Angus x Nellore steers fed 3.5 g/animal/d of an essential oil blend (oregano, garlic, lemon, rosemary, thyme, eucalyptus, and sweet orange) exhibited no change in Longissimus chemical composition, fatty acid profile, water holding capacity, texture, or lean color, but did exhibit a reduction in WBSF and lipid oxidation (fat rancidity). The influence on tenderness possibly was the result of the extended life of activity of calpain through the retardation of its oxidation (Rivaroli et al., 2016). Inclusion of aromatic herbs and essential oils in animal feed have been shown to enhance the flavor and palatability of meat (Jiang and Xiong, 2016). Some nonphenolic substances such as caryophyllene, careen, and terpinene also exhibit antioxidant activity (Franz, Baser, and Windisch, 2010).

Many herbs and spices have antioxidant properties (e.g., oregano, rosemary, thyme, cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg, licorice, aniseed, cassia bark, fennel, prickly ash, round cardamom, basil, garlic, coriander, and ginger) (Kong, Zhang, and Xiong, 2010; Velioglu et al., 1998; and Yoo et al., 2008). The antioxidant compounds in these herbs and spices are phenolic acids (e.g., gallic acid, caffeic acid, and rosmarinic acid), phenolic diterpenes (e.g., carnosic acid and carnosol), flavonoids (e.g., catechin, quercetin, apigenin, kaempferol, naringenin, and hesperetin), and volatile oils (e.g., eugenol, carvacrol, thymol, and menthol) (Brewer, 2011). The phenolic compounds have the ability to break free radical chain reactions by the donation of hydrogen and electrons (Shahidi et al., 1992). The most commonly used herbs and spices in the meat industry are rosemary, licorice, oregano, black pepper, and clove oil (Jiang and Xiong, 2016).

Rosemary’s antioxidant activity has been associated with the phenolic diterpenes: carnosic acid, carnosol, rosmanol, rosmariquinone, and rosmaridiphenol. For licorice, triterpene saponins and flavonoids are significant antioxidants. The primary phenolic in oregano is rosmarinic acid (Aruoma et al., 1992). Several specific antioxidants have been shown to increase red meat flavor when included in the animal’s diet. Rosemary leaves (Nieto et al., 2011), grape seed extract (Jerónimo et al., 2012), and licorice extract (Zhang et al., 2015) as animal feed additives have been shown to decrease lipid oxidation and improve eating quality of lamb.  Inclusion of aromatic herbs and essential oils in animal feed have been shown to enhance the flavor and palatability of meat (Jiang and Xiong, 2016). Some nonphenolic substances such as caryophyllene, careen, and terpinene also exhibit antioxidant activity (Franz, Baser, and Windisch, 2010).

Conclusion

Process and production optimization further define that there are different active components in each source plant, which decide the attributes of its resulting extract. Several herbs and spices have antioxidant properties since they contain phenolic acids, phenolic diterpenes, or volatile oils. Interestingly, it is well known that an illustration of this statement is the Thyme and Oregano, both antioxidants are elevating oils.  In our context, various distinct antioxidants were shown to increase the taste of red meat when included in the diet of the animal, hence the inclusion of aromatic herbs and essential oils. Why? Because radical chain reactions can break free thanks to the presence of phenolic compounds. But then, what is the origin of these macromolecular changes, the meat’s aromas, on the molecular level? Find the answer in the next E-letter!