Effects of dietary star anise (Illicium verum†Hook f) supplementation during gestation and lactation on the performance of lactating multiparous sows and nursing piglets.

Thirty-two sows were allocated to four treatments to evaluate the effect of dietary star anise (SA) supplementation during gestation and lactation on the lactational performance of sows. At 85 days of gestation, sows were randomly allotted to one of two diets supplemented with 0.5% SA or basal diet. After farrowing, sows were further allotted to one of two lactation diets supplemented with 0.5% SA or basal diet. On a weekly basis, body weight (BW) of sows and piglets was measured. Blood and milk samples were obtained from the sows and piglets. Number of days from weaning to estrus, milk yield and feed intake were also recorded. Weight gain of piglets from sows fed the SA-supplemented diet during lactation was greater between days 7 and 14, days 14 and 21 and the overall experimental period compared with control groups. Supplementation of SA during lactation improved weaning weight of piglets, milk yield and average daily feed intake (ADFI) of sows. The SA diet increased concentrations of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in ordinary milk and prolactin (PRL) in serum of sows. In conclusion, this study has indicated the beneficial effects of dietary SA addition in improving the lactation performance of sows.

[Monitoring the synthesis of N,N-diphenyl urea by IR-online].

IR-online detector, React IRTM 4000, was used to monitor the synthesis of N,N-diphenyl urea from urea and aniline. The concentration changes of the reaction components were obtained according to the characteristic IR absorbance changes of the reactants (urea and aniline) at 1 420 and 1 270 cm(-1) respectively, the intermediate product (monophenylurea) at 1 339 cm(-1) as well as the product (N,N-diphenyl urea) at 1 312 cm(-1). In the present study, the result showed that the synthesis of N,N-Diphenyl urea was carried out by two steps. Firstly, the intermediate product monophenylurea was synthesized from urea and aniline, and then N, N-diphenyl urea was obtained by the reaction of monophenylurea with aniline. It was also shown that the IR-online detector was a fast, simple and exact technique to optimize the reaction time and so the reaction course could be easily controlled. The result of IR-online spectrometry was approved by offline reference high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. As a result, the IR-online spectrometry was superior to HPLC method since it was a nondestructive method without the need to sample the reaction medium.