- Branko T Petrujkić: Department of Nutrition and Botany, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
Food-producing animals are reservoirs of Campylobacter, a leading bacterial cause of human foodborne illness. The natural product thymol can reduce the survivability of Campylobacter, but its rapid absorption in the proximal gastrointestinal tract may preclude its use as a feed additive to reduce intestinal colonization of these pathogens. This work examined the ex vivo absorption of thymol and thymol-β-d-glucopyranoside in everted porcine jejunal segments, as the latter was hypothesized to be more resistant to absorption. A modified gas chromatography and extraction method was developed to determine 1.0-500 mg/L thymol. From 1 and 3 mM solutions, 0.293 ± 0.04 and 0.898 ± 0.212 mM thymol, respectively, p = 0.0347, were absorbed, and 0.125 ± 0.041 and 0.317 ± 0.143 mM thymol-β-d-glucopyranoside, respectively, p = 0.0892, were absorbed. Results indicate that thymol-β-d-glucopyranoside was absorbed 2.3 to 2.8 times less effectively than thymol, thus providing evidence that thymol-β-d-glucopyranoside may potentially be used as a feed additive to transport thymol to the piglet lower gut.