Table 3.

Effects of Echinacea purpurea polysaccharides (EP) supplementation on the meat quality of broilers in 42 d.

Items	Groups1				SEM	P-value
	CON	EPL	EPM	EPH		ANOVA	Linear	Quadratic
Breast meat
pH 24 h	6.24	6.14	6.27	6.27	0.025	0.263	0.276	0.499
Drip loss rate, %	4.73a	2.91b	3.01b	3.53b	0.220	0.001	0.133	0.002
Cooking loss rate, %	0.20	0.19	0.22	0.20	0.007	0.679	0.978	0.926
Shear force, N	13.53	13.17	12.56	16.24	1.745	0.902	0.620	0.762
Brightness	47.80	50.08	46.99	46.32	0.730	0.299	0.209	0.355
Redness	6.23	6.15	5.82	6.44	0.287	0.906	0.887	0.804
Yellowness	15.16	16.22	16.00	15.33	0.676	0.943	0.989	0.841
Thigh meat
pH 24 h	6.59	6.61	6.58	6.49	0.024	0.328	0.125	0.171
Drip loss rate, %	4.58a	3.35ab	2.88b	2.67b	0.249	0.011	0.003	0.004
Cooking loss rate, %	0.20	0.21	0.19	0.20	0.011	0.931	0.699	0.884
Shear force, N	11.87a	11.04ab	7.25b	13.02a	0.720	0.009	0.953	0.025
Brightness	48.41	48.52	47.08	48.75	0.990	0.942	0.974	0.903
Redness	8.87	7.35	8029	7.20	0.413	0.458	0.313	0.602
Yellowness	14.94	13.92	14.62	12.59	0.662	0.630	0.293	0.538

SEM = standard error of mean.

Within a row, means without a common superscript letter differ at P < 0.05.

¹CON, EPL, EPM, and EPH, represent EP addition levels of 0.0, 0.3%, 0.6%, and 0.9% in the diet, respectively (n = 6).