The dietary treatment effect on the fatty acid profile as well as on the health indices in thigh
and breast meat are shown in Table 3. Dietary treatments influenced total polyunsaturated
fatty acids content with increased values in THY group compared to the TAN (P < 0.05).
Total monounsaturated fatty acids were significantly decreased in the GAL group compared
to all other experimental groups but only in breast muscle (P < 0.05). Concerning the
polyunsaturated fatty acids, treatment influence was the most obvious in n3 long chain fatty
acids that were significantly increased in the GAL group compared to other groups (P < 0.05).
The concentration of specific unsaturated fatty acids revealed an increase of α-linolenic acid
(C18:3 n-3) in the breast meat of the THY group and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, C22:5 n3)
in GAL group in comparison to the CON group (P < 0.05). Increase in PUFA content and n6
fatty acids was observed after addition of thymol and carvacol in the thigh muscle of chicken
broilers and in liver and brain phospholipid PUFA after treatment with thymol. Thymol
and gallic acid, as substances with strong antioxidative properties, probably block oxidation
of lipids which could influence LC PUFA content in our trial. Regarding health indices no
significant treatment differences (P > 0.05) were observed in both the atherogenic index (AI)
and thrombogenic index (TI) which could be expected because differences in specific fatty
acids that are used for AI and TI calculations were not extensively changed