Table 4. Effects of herbal rations on serum liver enzymes activity and meat color of broilers.

Variables	CT-R	Herbal rations			SEM	p-value
		LG-R	SM-R	LS-R
Liver weight (%)	2.51b ± 0.05	2.61ab ± 0.04	2.59ab ± 0.05	2.65a ± 0.08	0.072	0.052
Serum liver enzymes activity (U/l)
ALT	185.7a ± 2.75	145.4c ± 2.17	155.2b ± 2.75	149.4c ± 1.62	4.813	0.001
AST	4.85a ± 0.33	2.70c ± 0.11	3.29b ± 0.38	2.91bc ± 0.10	0.261	0.001
ALP	89.1a ± 3.38	70.7c ± 2.49	82.7b ± 2.92	75.4c ± 2.17	2.211	0.001
Breast meat color
L*	56.13 ± 0.84	57.41 ± 0.68	58.30 ± 2.17	56.99 ± 1.26	0.411	0.336
a*	4.45c ± 0.61	4.76bc ± 0.38	5.60a ± 0.39	5.33ab ± 0.23	0.172	0.037
b*	11.27 ± 0.82	11.71 ± 1.13	12.00 ± 0.25	12.03 ± 0.15	0.198	0.556
SI	12.13b ± 0.56	12.65b ± 0.23	13.25a ± 0.35	13.15a ± 0.21	0.733	0.041
Thigh meat color
L*	58.40 ± 3.89	53.29 ± 3.79	60.90 ± 3.45	58.76 ± 1.54	1.172	0.104
a*	4.66b ± 0.36	4.96ab ± 0.40	5.42a ± 0.14	5.16ab ± 0.04	0.108	0.050
b*	11.78 ± 0.57	11.90 ± 0.37	12.71 ± 0.53	12.37 ± 0.28	0.159	0.118
SI	12.67b ± 0.66	12.89ab ± 0.49	13.81a ± 0.44	13.40ab ± 0.28	0.181	0.056

CT-R: Corn-soya based basal ration, LG-R: CT-R + 1.0% fresh lemongrass on DM basis, SM-R: CT-R + 1.0% fresh spearmint on DM basis, LS-R: CT-R + 0.5% fresh lemongrass and 0.5% fresh spearmint on DM basis, ALT: Alanine aminotransferase, AST: Aspartate aminotransferase, ALP: Alkaline phosphatase, U/l: International unit per liter, L*: Lightness, a*: Redness, b*: Yellowness, SI: Saturation index, SEM: Standard error mean.

^a–c Means values with dissimilar superscripts differ significantly (p < 0.05).