Table 1.

Effect of Echinacea purpurea root (100 and 200 mg/kg body weight) on the biological evaluation parameters among different groups

Parameters	Experimental groups
	Group I (control)	Group II (CsA)	Group III (CsA + EPR) (100 mg/kg BW)	Group IV (CsA + EPR) (200 mg/kg BW)
Initial BW (g)	194.75±1.03	193.88±1.72	193.25±1.20	196.63±0.96
Final BW (g)	222.75±7.84	200.75±4.73a,*	182.75±5.51a,***	189.75±7.23a,***
BWG (%)	14.39±4.55	3.16±1.48a,*	−5.44±2.59a,***	−3.50±2.39a,***
FI (g/rat/day)	16.83±1.49	14.67±1.39	12.18±0.93a,*	11.25±1.08a,**
FER	0.08±0.02	0.02±0.01a,*	−0.04±0.02a,***,b,*	−0.03±0.01a,***,b,*

Data are mean±SE (n=8). ^aSignificant difference from control, ^bSignificant difference from CsA, ^cSignificant difference between CsA + EPR (100 mg/kg BW) and CsA + EPR (200 mg/kg BW), *P<0.05, **P<0.01 and ***P<0.001. BWG%: Body weight gain percent, FI: Feed intake, FER: Feed efficiency ratio, BW: Body weight, EPR: Echinacea purpurea root, CsA: Cyclosporine, SE: Standard error