Table 1.
Various beneficial effects of hot red pepper.
| Effect | Reference |
|---|---|
| Chili pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) shows antioxidant activities. Decreases lipid peroxidation as it is a rich source of carotenoids such as vitamins C and E, and provitamin A | Krinsky, 2001; Kogure et al., 2002; Conforti et al., 2007; Oboh et al., 2007 |
| Acts as an appetizer | Ozer et al., 2005, Al-Kassie et al., 2011b |
| Improves gut integrity | AlKassie et al., 2012 |
| Increases body weight and weight gain | Atapattu and Belpagodagamage, 2011 |
| Improves feed conversion ratio | Eldeeb et al., 2006 |
| Shows antimicrobial and bactericidal effects against intestinal pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Clostridium spp., and Salmonella spp. | Zeyrek and Oguz, 2005; Omolo et al., 2014; Agarwal et al., 2017 |
| Darkens the yolk color and improves laying performance | Ozer et al., 2006 |
| Decreases total blood cholesterol concentration | Puvaca et al., 2015b |
| Acts as an important alkaloid owing to its neurotonic activity | Zeyrek and Oguz, 2005; Hayman and Kam, 2008 |
| Shows antiinflammatory, antiallergenic, and anticarcinogenic activities | Lee et al., 2005; Nishino et al., 2009 |
| Capsaicin shows antioxidant, antiinflammatory, antiallergenic, and anticarcinogenic effects and reduces the risk of cancer | Munglang and Vidyarthi, 2019 |
| HRP boosts pancreatic and intestinal enzyme activities, enhances bile acid secretion, and increases body weight growth in broiler chickens. It reduces heat stress and improves feed digestibility, body weight, feed intake, feed conversion efficiency, mortality, carcass characteristics, blood parameters, and production cost | Munglang and Vidyarthi, 2019 |
| Hot or chili pepper (paprika) contains the terpenoid compound capsaicin, which has antibacterial properties | Singletary, 2011 |
| HRP is rich in vitamin C, which significantly mitigates heat stress in birds | Yoshioka et al., 2001; Al-Kassie et al., 2012; Abd El-Hack et al., 2018; Abdelnour et al., 2018 |
| HRP decreases blood cholesterol without affecting triglyceride levels | Eldeeb et al., 2006 |
Abbreviation: HRP, hot red pepper.