engleski

Importance of plants with medicinal properties in herbivore diets

Plant secondary metabolites can adversely affect cellular and metabolic processes in herbivores, but also at low doses and in appropriate mixtures, they can have beneficial effects on animal nutrition, health and other therapeutic impacts. In this paper, we demonstrate the potential effects of plants with medicinal properties on animal foraging behavior as a function of the consequences they experience after ingestion of Mediterranean shrubs that are rich in phytotoxins. This mechanism – behavior by consequences – suggests animals are able to meet nutritional requirements and self- select certain plants with medicinal properties if they are offered the opportunity to do so when foraging in diverse Mediterranean shrub communities. Understanding the feeding behavior of ruminants when offered a variety of plant species is necessary to be able to improve their health and well-being by reducing levels of stress and fear ; it may also lead to the early detection of illness. Thus, management strategies in biochemically/biologically diverse ecosystems should benefit from allowing ruminants to manifest their feeding preferences.

Secondary metabolites; food selection; medical plants

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