Antinutritional factors
Mexican sunflower contains limited amounts of secondary metabolites (tannins, flavonoids, esteroids, alkaloids, saponins, terpenoids and anthocyanidins) that can act as antinutritional factors (Delgado et al., 2010). Though these antinutritional factors are in much lower concentrations that in other tropical forages, such as Leucaena leucocephala, it can be useful to reduce their level through air-drying (Odedire et al., 2011; Delgado et al., 2010). Decreases in white blood cell content have been observed in pigs and poultry fed increasing amounts of dried Tithonia diversifolia forage (Olayeni et al., 2006). This could be explained by the presence of terpenoids (sesquiterpene lactones) in the leaves (Dutta et al., 1986).