The invention concerns a method for the prevention/curing/treatment of diarrhoea in mammals by administering the mammals an effective daily amount of a composition comprising as active component(s) phytosterols and/or pentacyclotriterpenes as present in or derived from Shea oil as well as a method for the preparation of a food or a feed product comprising carbohydrates and proteins wherein the food or feed product has anti-diarrhoea or anti scouring properties by the incorporation of an effective amount of phytosterols and/or pentacyclotriterpenes as present in or derived from Shea oil as active component.

In a number of areas such as in the pig breeding area but also in the medical area for humans, in particular for babies a known problem with the young mammals is that they easily suffer from diarrhoea. In the breeding industry an attempt to try to prevent and/or treat and/or cure diarrhoea (also named scour in the cattle industry) in the mammals sensitive for or suffering from it use was made of so called antimicrobial growth promoters (=AMGP's). Although some of these AMGP's give some relief they also possess a number of disadvantages such as that their use leads to the development of a resistance of the bacterial colonies responsible for the diarrhoea against the AMGP's. Therefore a number of National Health Organisations already decided that within a short period from now the use of these AMGP's will be prohibited. This created a great need to find replacers that are at least as effective as the AMGP's used so far, but for which the bacteria have not developed a resistance.

As the problems with diarrhoea are the most severe with weaning piglets and with babies the replacers should also be safe to use for these groups of mammals.

According to WO 02/056879 natural terpenes wherein the building block is a hydrocarbon isoprene can be used for this purpose. However, these compounds have a number of disadvantages such as that they do not seem to reduce the incidence of number of veterinary control that is necessary for the young mammals fed with such components.

We studied whether we could find a useful replacer for the known AMGP's that are safe to use both for babies and for weaning piglets but also for other young mammals. Further these compounds should be effective and should not lead to a resistance within the bacteria responsible for the diarrhoea. Moreover these replacers should not have a negative effect on the growth (weight increase) of the young mammals when using them. Another requisite of these replacers being that they should not increase the incidence of number of veterinary controls necessary for the young mammals using the replacer during the weaning period.

The above studied has resulted in our novel invention. This invention concerns in the first instance a method for the prevention/curing/treatment of diarrhoea in mammals by administering the mammals an effective daily amount of a composition comprising as active component(s) phytosterols and/or pentacyclotriterpenes as present in shea oil or in fractions thereof. Preferably the young mammals are weaning piglets or babies.

The invention also provides the use of composition comprising as active component(s) phytosterols and/or pentacyclotriterpenes as present in or derived from Shea oil in the manufacture of an agent for the prevention and/or treatment of diarrhoea. Suitable agents include feed products, medicaments and dietary supplements.

Further contemplated by the invention is the composition for use in preventing and/or curing and/or treating diarrhoea.

It was found that the sterol and/or pentacyclotriterpene component(s) present in shea olein (olein being the liquid fraction that can be obtained by fractionation of shea oil either by solvent fractionation (e.g., by fractionation in acetone at 0.degree. C.) or by dry fractionation) or in concentrates thereof are very suitable as the active components. Concentrates and methods for their production are disclosed in EP-A-1001007, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. However, the active component also can be derivatives of these phytosterols or pentacyclotriterpenes The most practical components being the phytosterols and/or pentacyclotriterpenes that have the natural composition of the shea sterols or shea pentacyclotriterpenes as present in shea olein. These components can comprise more than 50 wt % of 4,4-dimethylsterols or 4,4-dimethyl pentacyclotriterpenes selected from the group consisting of alpha-amyrin, beta-amyrin, butyrospermol and lupeol. The sterols can however also be applied as free hydroxysterols (i.e. the acid groups such as acetic acid or cinnamic acid or furnaric acid which are attached to the sterols in shea have been removed therefrom e.g. by hydrolysis) or as fatty acid esters thereof (obtained by introduction of a fatty acid residue in the 2 position of the sterol or triterpene).

The effective amount can be determined by experimentation but in general this amount will be 0.005 to 30 gran/kg (e.g., 0.5 to 30 gram/kg), more preferably 0.005 to 5 gram/kg body weight of the mammal per day.

The active components can also be applied for the preparation of a food or a feed with the desired health property. Therefore, part of the invention is also a method for the preparation of a food or a feed product comprising carbohydrates and proteins wherein the food or feed product has anti-diarrhoea properties by the incorporation of an effective amount of phytosterols and/or pentacyclotriterpenes derived from the sterols or triterpenes as present in shea oil as active component. The food or feed preferably comprises 0.001 to 85 wt % of the active component, such as 0.01 to 50 wt %, even more preferably 0.001 to 4 wt %, for example 0.01 to 4 wt %. A preference exists for the use of the natural components of shea olein i.e. the natural shea sterols, or shea pentacyclotriterpenes. In particular the active component will comprise at least 50 wt % of 4,4-dimethyl derivatives of Shea sterols and/or of Shea pentacyclotriterpenes selected from the group consisting of alpha-amyrin, beta-amyrin, butyrospermol and lupeol.

As a last embodiment of our invention we found novel animal feed comprising carbohydrates and proteins (preferably in amounts of at least 1 wt % and 1 wt %, respectively, more preferably 1 to 50 wt % and 1 to 50%, respectively) and 0.001 to 4 wt % of a Shea olein comprising 2 to 12 wt % of (Shea sterols plus shea pentacyclotriterpenes) or of a concentrate of Shea sterols and/or Shea pentacyclotritetpenes comprising in total 12.5 to 80 wt % of these components. The animal feed may optionally comprise one or more vitamins and/or one or more minerals (eg, iron, calcium and zinc) and/or one or more amino acids. Other preferred components of the animal feed include: cereals, including barley, wheat, maize and mixtures thereof; soy meal, preferably solvent extracted; toasted soy beans; linseed; sunflower meal, preferably solvent extracted; whey powder; and soy bean oil. The animal feed preferably takes the form of a liquid, a powder or pellets, with pellets being more particularly preferred.
 

Claim 1 of 12 Claims

1. Method for treating diarrhoea in mammals which comprises administering to the mammals an effective daily amount of a composition comprising, as active component, phytosterols and/or pentacyclotriterpenes as present in or derived from Shea oil.

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