Comparison Study on Effects of Three Chinese Herbal Medicine on Intestinal Morphology in Weaning Piglets

The objective of this study was to compare the effect of three Chinese herbal medicine (medicated leaven, hawthorn, fructus hordei germinates) on histomorphology of different parts of small intestine in weaning piglets.40 28-day old ternary pigs (Duroc×Landrace×Yorkshire) with the body weight (8.13±1.32)kg were divided into four groups, control group, medicated leaven group, hawthorn group and fructus hordei germinates group, and feeding with 1% Chinese herbal medicine, there were two repeats in each group and each repeat had 5 piglets, slaughtering and sampling at 7th and 14th day morning, respectively, sections were used for HE staining.The staining tissues were taken pictures under a microscope camera (200×) and measured VH, CD, IWT and V/C in different parts of small intestine with Image-Pro Plus.The result showed that the IWH of ileum in medicated leaven group was significantly or extremely significantly higher than control group (P<0.05;P<0.01).The VH and IWT of duodenum and jejunum at 7th day in hawthorn group were extremely significantly lower than control group (P<0.01);The IWT of ileum and the VH of ileum at 14th day were extremely significantly higher than control group (P<0.01).In fructus hordei germinates group, the VH of duodenum and jejunum at 7th day and IWT of jejunum were extremely significantly lower than control group (P<0.01);The CD of ileum at 7th day, the IWT of duodenum and ileum at 7th day were extremely significantly higher than control group (P<0.01).The effects of different simple Chinese herbal medicine on histomorphology of different parts of small intestine in piglets were different, because of the different digestive functions of small intestine, the most effects of Chinese herbal medicine an duodenum, jejunum and ileum were fructus hordei germinates, medicated leaven and hawthorn, respectively.