Charcoal has been used in medicine for the past 100 years due to its ability to adsorb most poisons (Chyka and Seger 2005). In the mid-1970s, activated charcoal was accepted as an antidote in adsorption and elimination of a variety of medications (Davies 1991). Charcoal generally refers to the carbonaceous residue of wood, coconut shells and various industrial wastes left after heating organic matter in the absence of oxygen. Charcoal is an adsorbent for many toxins,
gases, drugs, fat and fat-soluble substances without any specific action (Kutlu et al. 2001). The adsorptive power of charcoal could be increased considerably by treating with various substances at temperatures ranging from 500 to 9008C. final product is called activated charcoal (Osol 1975). Activated charcoal is a fine black powder that is produced from the decomposed material of various organic materials, which is then exposed to oxidising gases at high temperatures to activate and increase the surface area (Clegg and Hope 1999). Activated charcoal has been shown to adsorb a wide range of compounds (Struhsaker et al. 1997). Adsorption therapy with activated charcoal as a non-digestible carrier is one of
the important methods of preventing the ingested toxicants or noxious substances formed in the gastrointestinal tract (McLennan and Amos 1989; McKenzie 1991; Jindal et al. 1994). The extreme inertness of charcoal makes it an unlikely source of minerals when passed through the mammalian digestive system (Cooney 1995). Activated charcoal controls the lactic acid concentration by maintain pH level and microflora population in rumen (Hoshi et al. 1991). It also combines with the phenol in gastrointestinal tracks, which prevent interference of hydrosoluble tannins with enzyme’s function and
protein digestion (Murdiati et al. 1991). Bamboo charcoal is an activated charcoal made by dry distillation and powder of thick-stemmed bamboo, which contain a complex network of pores of various shape and size and can bind a variety of
molecules (Zhao et al. 2008). It is considered to have a higher adsorption capacity because of the special structure of micro-pores found in bamboo stem (ChungPin et al. 2004). Bamboo charcoal powder is an insoluble carrier that non-specifically adsorbs molecules and prevents their absorption, therefore, it has been used as an oral antidote to reduce absorption of poisons from the gastrointestinal tract (Anjaneyulu et al. 1993). Hence, this experiment was carried out to investigate bamboo charcoal as an animal feed additive. Some researchers studied charcoal and activated charcoal as animal feed additive. Charcoal affected growth performance and carcass traits in fattening pigs (Hwang 1995), and was used as feed additive for production of high-quality meat (Kim 1990). Activated charcoal also affected microbes reproduction in sheep (Knutson et al. 2006) and meat quality and storage characteristics of pork (Lee et al. 2011).
However, to our knowledge, dietary of bamboo charcoal has not been studied in pigs and this study focused on it as a feed additive for pigs. Moreover, the main purpose of this study was to investigate whether the growth performance, blood characteristics, immune response, noxious gas emission and faecal microflora population of fattening pigs fed dietary bamboo charcoal could be improved.