Table 3.

Effects of graded levels of dietary beta-sitosterol supplementation on the serum biochemical parameters of broiler chickens.

Items	Beta-sitosterol level (mg/kg)					SEM1	P-values
	0	25	50	75	100		ANOVA2	Linear	Quadratic
14 d
Total protein (g/L)	24.67	23.07	23.52	22.78	22.82	0.44	0.661	0.221	0.585
Albumin (g/L)	18.63	18.58	19.85	18.90	19.32	0.21	0.289	0.255	0.464
Glucose (mmol/L)	8.48	9.10	9.38	9.20	9.76	0.24	0.564	0.131	0.772
Triglyceride (mmol/L)	1.47	1.52	1.27	1.37	1.35	0.03	0.155	0.101	0.479
Total cholesterol (mmol/L)	4.13	3.66	3.70	3.51	4.02	0.09	0.170	0.554	0.026
Alanine aminotransferase (U/L)	5.03	4.66	5.03	5.84	5.18	0.17	0.306	0.230	0.922
Aspartate aminotransferase (U/L)	33.05	35.37	27.25	31.02	31.24	0.96	0.087	0.213	0.307
21 d
Total protein (g/L)	24.35	24.23	24.66	26.14	25.90	0.30	0.127	0.020	0.733
Albumin (g/L)	19.00	19.34	18.95	19.77	19.92	0.24	0.643	0.205	0.689
Glucose (mmol/L)	10.82	10.51	10.93	11.39	11.09	0.16	0.565	0.242	0.964
Triglyceride (mmol/L)	0.91	1.00	0.75	0.89	0.97	0.04	0.296	0.946	0.246
Total cholesterol (mmol/L)	3.78	3.88	3.76	3.82	3.68	0.06	0.906	0.576	0.586
Alanine aminotransferase (U/L)	6.39	5.60	5.18	5.56	6.15	0.15	0.064	0.599	0.004
Aspartate aminotransferase (U/L)	31.84	27.31	31.87	27.81	29.52	1.13	0.598	0.616	0.693

¹SEM, standard error of the mean (n = 6).

²ANOVA, analysis of variance.