Abstract

The objective of the current study was to determine the correlations between the sensory characteristics of village chickens that were treated with medicinal plants. A total of 42 mature village chickens were kept at Fort Cox College of Forestry and Agriculture for 14 days until slaughter. The chickens were randomly allocated to five groups: Group 1 was for the negative control (treated with distilled water against gastro-intestinal parasites), group 2 was for the positive control (treated with Mebendazole), group 3 were treated with Aloe ferox, group 4 were treated with Agave sisalana and group 5 were treated with Gunera perpensa.  Yellow maize mixed with wheat bran was given to the chickens at 600 g per group per day. The mean live weight of the chickens was 1.36 ± 0.667 (± standard error). There were significant treatment effects on aroma intensity, initial impression of juiciness for chickens treated with A. ferox, distilled water and mebendazole polymorph. Consumers gave higher scores for aroma intensity and connective tissue (P < 0.01) for birds treated with distilled water, mebendazole and A. ferox than that of G. perpensa. There were also positive significant correlations among first bite and amount of connective tissue of village chicken meat. Village chicken meat treated with A. ferox, A. sisalana and distilled water was tender, juicier and had a good flavour when compared to other medicinal treatments. It can be recommended that A. ferox and A. sisalana can be used in treating village chickens for it does not affect meat quality characteristics for human consumption.

Keywords: Flavour, juiciness, meat quality, medicinal plants, tenderness.