Yucca, commonly known as pineapple, is a plant of the genus Yucca in the Agave family. Yucca extract is the raw material of Yucca, extracted and concentrated by alcohol solvent, and then after two-phase extraction with water and n-butanol to remove impurities, the n-butanol phase is evaporated to dryness and the ether insolubles obtained by refluxing with ether are used as feed Additives are used in animal husbandry production. The products currently on the market mainly come in two forms: liquid and solid powder. Among them, the liquid yucca extract is a squeezed and concentrated yucca juice without any carrier; the solid powder is also divided into two types. At present, most of them are made by spraying the squeezed yucca juice on the carrier and then drying. One is to directly dry and grind the yucca into a powder product, which does not contain a carrier and contains all the active ingredients of the yucca.

 

The main active ingredients of Yucca Extract

Many biological functions of yucca extract are related to its active ingredients. Its main active ingredients include: steroid saponins, polysaccharides, resveratrol and linfenglan polyphenols.

  1. Steroid saponins

Steroid saponins are the most important active ingredient in yucca extract and the most clearly studied ingredient. Saponins contain a lipophilic group called sapogenin, and one or more hydrophilic sugar branches are a natural surfactant or emulsifier, which is good for the emulsification of oils and promotes the digestion of monoglycerides. Absorption, thereby improving the utilization rate of grease. The hydrophobic part of saponins are linked to the hydrophobic groups of cholesterol in the mucosal layer in a way of superposition of micelles, forming a complex to affect the permeability of intestinal cells. In a similar way, saponins also have antiprotozoal activity, by binding to cholesterol in the protozoan cell membrane, destroying the integrity of the protozoan cell membrane, leading to cell lysis.

  1. Polysaccharides

Polysaccharides, specifically functional oligosaccharides formed by multiple monosaccharides connected by glycosidic bonds, are an important active ingredient in yucca extract, which is not digested by digestive enzymes secreted by the animal itself and enters the back of the intestinal tract As a chemical probiotic, it promotes the growth and reproduction of beneficial bacteria, and can effectively inhibit the proliferation of pathogenic bacteria, maintain the stable structure of the intestinal microecology, and promote intestinal health. In addition, as a nutrient, polysaccharides can be decomposed and utilized by intestinal probiotics such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, and can also be combined with intestinal ammonia molecules to be fully utilized as a nitrogen source for intestinal microbial fermentation, while effectively regulating The acid-base balance of the intestines increases the activity of digestive enzymes and improves the utilization of nutrients such as protein, vitamins and minerals.

  1. Polyphenols

Yucca contains two unique polyphenols, resveratrol and linfenglan polyphenols, which have strong binding ability to amino groups. Therefore, it is speculated that these two polyphenols in yucca extract may also have the ability to reduce ammonia. In addition, resveratrol has a significant anti-infective effect. Nitric oxide (NO), as a signal molecule, plays an important role in immune regulation and neurotransmission and other physiological functions, but too much NO is cytotoxic and is accompanied by inflammation. Studies such as Marzocco proved that yucca polyphenols can inhibit the expression of nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). NF-ΚB is a transcription factor that can regulate the expression of iNOS genes. Therefore, yucca polyphenol exerts a strong anti-infective effect by inhibiting the activity of NF-κB

The main Benefits of Yucca Extract

  1. Yucca extract can reduce ammonia emissions

Ammonia accounts for a large proportion of the odorous gas produced by animal excrement and urine in farms. It and highly toxic hydrogen sulfide have become the main odor indicator gases in farms. The production of ammonia in feces is mainly due to the excretion of undigested nutrients (especially sulfur-containing amino acids) with the feces, which are fermented by microorganisms to produce a large amount of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide; while the production of ammonia in urine is due to the action of urease. Prompt the large amount of ammonia to escape from urea. Urea produced by the metabolism of protein and amino acids in the intestine is decomposed under the action of urease to produce ammonia gas. These intestinal ammonia gas can damage the mucosal epithelial tissue, affect the physiological metabolism of mucosal cells, destroy the normal composition of the intestinal flora, break the intestinal acid-base balance, reduce the intestinal digestive enzyme activity, and ultimately affect the digestion and absorption of feed.

At present, a large number of studies have reported that the active ingredients in yucca extract can reduce the production of ammonia in feces and urine and in the intestinal tract, and improve the utilization of nitrogen in feed. The mechanism of action is currently inconclusive, and the possible mechanisms are as follows: Yucca extract can reduce the production of ammonia by inhibiting the activity of urease. Many studies have reported that Yucca extract is a urease inhibitor. Tang Yanjun and others passed two in vitro simulation tests, and the results showed that Yucca extract has a significant inhibitory effect on urease activity.

Yucca extract has the ability to directly bind ammonia. Buggle et al. reported that the macromolecules and sequence molecules in the yucca extract have the ability to adsorb ammonia. The polyphenols and ammonia molecules in the composition also have a strong binding ability to reduce ammonia emissions. Yucca extract can promote microorganisms to use the ammonia gas in the intestine to form microbial protein, and the nitrogen compounds formed by the combination of polysaccharides and ammonia gas can also be fully utilized by the intestinal microorganisms, thereby reducing the mass concentration of ammonia gas and improving the utilization rate of nitrogen in the feed. Yucca extract can also prevent the nitrification of nitrogen in feces and urine, so that nitrogen exists in the form of inorganic matter, thereby reducing the amount of ammonia emitted into the atmosphere.

  1. Yucca extract can regulate the intestinal microenvironment

The intestine is a very complex environment. Nutrients, physical and chemical environment, and microbial flora are all in a dynamic equilibrium process to ensure the efficient digestion and absorption of nutrients. Once the balance is broken, animals will have various digestive problems. Ammonia is a weakly alkaline gas and an important factor affecting the physical and chemical balance of the intestinal tract. Yucca extract reduces the content of ammonia in the intestinal tract, maintains the acid-base balance of the intestinal tract, provides suitable pH conditions for the highest activity of digestive enzymes, and promotes the digestion and absorption of nutrients.

The saponins in the yucca extract can change the structure of intestinal villi and the thickness of the mucosa, increase the nutrient absorption area, and combine with the cholesterol on the intestinal epithelial cell membrane to form a complex to remove it and increase the permeability of intestinal mucosal cells , Reduce the surface tension of the film. Saponins can also bind to compounds with similar structures on the surface of bacteria and cholesterol, increase the permeability of the bacterial cell wall and cell membrane, increase the secretion of exogenous enzymes and degrade the macromolecules around the bacteria, and make the absorption of nutrients faster. In addition, yucca saponin affects the phagocytosis of bacteria by the protozoa through its inhibitory effect on the intestinal protozoa, which increases the number of fiber-decomposing bacteria in the intestinal tract, which is more helpful for the fermentation and degradation of cellulose in the back section of the digestive tract.

  1. Yucca extract has antibacterial effect

According to Chinese application pharmacology records: Yucca saponins have broad-spectrum antibacterial effects against hemolytic Staphylococcus aureus, hemolytic streptococcus, pneumococcus, dysentery bacillus, typhoid bacillus, paratyphoid bacillus, Vibrio cholerae, and Escherichia coli , Proteus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus pertussis and common pathogenic skin fungi all have strong inhibitory properties. Wallance et al. found that the effect of saponins in the pure culture of rumen bacteria by carbohydrates is species-selective, and the effect on gram-positive bacteria is far greater than that on negative bacteria. They also pointed out that yucca saponin at a mass concentration of 1-10 mg/L can inhibit Growth of Streptococcus bovis and Shigella.

Bu Changying et al. reported that adding yucca saponin to the diet significantly reduced the E. coli content in the caecum of 21-day-old broilers, while the content of Lactobacillus caecum showed an increasing trend but the difference was not significant (P>0.05). Yucca extract also has a certain inhibitory effect on fungi. Chen Huajie and other reports pointed out that Yucca extract can inhibit the growth of Candida utilis and Pichia pastoris, two urase-producing yeasts.

  1. Yucca extract can improve immune function

Yucca saponin has immunostimulatory activity, can promote the production of antibodies, can stimulate the proliferation of immune cells in vitro, increase the content of CD4+ in the blood, reduce the content of CD8+, and increase the titer of Newcastle disease antibodies. At present, various scholars have put forward a lot of views on the specific mechanism of yucca extract to promote immune system function: Kensil and other reports pointed out that saponin can induce the production of cytokines such as insulin and interferon, thereby mediating their immune stimulation response; Antigen-presenting cells interact to induce immune response; it has been reported that yucca saponin can enhance the immune response by increasing the intestinal mucosa’s intake of antigens, and can also bind to antigens to form complexes to prevent antigens from being digested and degraded .

  1. Yucca extract has lowering blood sugar, lowering cholesterol and antioxidant effects

Yucca extract can lower blood sugar and cholesterol content, and has the effect of anti-oxidative stress. Fidan et al. used diabetic mice as test subjects and found that yucca powder can reduce the blood sugar content of diabetic mice, blood cholesterol and triacylglycerol also decreased significantly, and also reduced monocyte DNA damage. Cigerci and other research results show that the components in yucca can reduce the hemoglobin, the content of malondialdehyde in the blood and tissues and the content of nitric oxide in the tissues, increase the content of glutathione in the blood and tissues, and increase the antioxidant capacity of poisoned mice. Ability to fully protect the body from oxidative damage and complications caused by nitrite poisoning.

The above are the main functions of yucca extract we have summarized for everyone. Xi’an Herb Bio can provide you with high-quality and reasonably priced yucca extract and yucca saponin. If you are interested, please contact us for more detailed information. It can also be forwarded, so that more people have a deeper understanding of the benefits of yucca extract.