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Effect of Treatment Methods on the Nutritive Quality of Elephant-Ear Seeds (Enterolobium Cyclocarpum Jacq Griseb) as Feed for Ruminant Production

Ojo, V. O. A., Akinade, G. A., Fasae, O. A. and Akinlolu, A. O.

Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science, Volume 41, Issue 1, February 2018

Published: 21 Feb 2018

The study was carried out to evaluate the nutritive quality of Enterolobium Cyclocarpum seeds. Matured pods of E. Cyclocarpum were handpicked and seeds were manually separated. Seeds were either toasted, boiled or untreated (raw). The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design consisting of three treatment groups replicated four times with a total seed of 0.5 kg per replicate. The result of the chemical analysis showed that there were significant differences (P<0.05) for all the parameters investigated. The crude protein content was significantly highest (P<0.05) (24.9%) in boiled E. Cyclocarpum seeds and least (22.4%) in the raw seeds. Untreated (raw) seeds recorded highest (P<0.05) contents for all the secondary metabolites (saponin, tannin, oxalate and trypsin) investigated in this study while boiled seeds recorded lowest. Treatment methods had a significant (P<0.05) effect on the in vitro gas production of E. Cyclocarpum seeds with the boiled seeds having highest gas production (72 ml/200 mg DM at 48 hours of incubation). The study showed that boiling of E. Cyclocarpum seeds improved its chemical composition and gas production, suggesting that moist heat treatment is preferable when making use of seeds in ruminant diets.