author(s)
K Merina Devi, Jyoti Palod, Pankaj Kumar Singh, S Shekhar, VS Singh and Anil Kumar Singh

abstract
The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of Pudina (Mentha arvensis) leaf powder on antioxidant parameters in the diet of laying hens. A total of one hundred twenty White Leghorn laying hens of 36 weeks of age were randomly assigned into four treatment groups (T1, T2, T3 and T4) with six replicates of five birds each. The birds were fed with different levels of pudina leaf powder at 0, 5.0, 7.5 and 10.0 g / kg layer feedupto 12^th weeks of age. At the end of fourth week or 28^th day of experimentation, about 2 ml of blood was collected randomly from two birds of each replicate to determine antioxidant parameters. The results revealed that there was a significant (P<0.05) decrease in the level of LPO (T2, 1.91±0.04; T3, 1.77±0.03 and T4,1.68±0.05 nM MDA/ ml) and significant (P<0.05) increase in GSH (T2,1.69±0.05; T3, 2.52±0.06and T4, 2.74±0.04 mM/ ml) and CAT (T2, 538.55 ±4.42; T3, 597. 84±4.12 and T4, 648.02 ±6.40 mM H₂ O₂ utilized/min/mg Hb) levels in the pudina supplemented groups compared to the control groups (2.08±0.06 nM MDA/ ml, 1.03±0.04 mM/ ml and 350.14±2.58 mM H₂ O₂ utilized/min/mg Hb) respectively. The overall best performance was observed in birds of group T4 fed pudina leaves @ 10.0 g/kg. It can be concluded that pudina leaf powder can effectively be used as feed additive in laying hens as a strong antioxidant to protect against oxidative damage.