Pretreatment of sugar cane bagasse for enhanced ruminal digestion

Crop residues, such as sugar cane bagasse (SCB), have been largely used for cattle feeding. However, the close association that exists among the three major plant cell-wall components, cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, limits the efficiency by which ruminants can degrade these materials. Previously, we have shown that pretreatment with 3% (w/w) phosphoric acid, under relatively mild conditions, increased considerably the nutritional value of SCB. However, in this preliminary study, pretreated residues were not washed prior to in situ degradability assays because we wanted to explore the high initial solvability of low-mol-wt substances that were produced during pretreatment. We have now studied the suitability of water- and/or alkali-washed residues to in situ ruminal digestion. Alkali washing increased substrate cellulose content by removing most of the lignin and other residual soluble substances. As a result, the ruminal degradability of these cleaner materials had first-order rate constants five times higher than those substrates with higher lignin content (e.g., stem-exploded bagasse). However, alkali washing also increased the time of ruminal lag phase of the cellulosic residue, probably because of hemicellulose and/or lignin removal and to the development of substrates with higher degree of crystallinity. Therefore, longer lag phases appear to be related to low microbial adherence after extensive water and alkali extraction, as Novell as to the slower process of cellulase induction during ruminal growth. The kinetic data on ruminal digestion were shown to be very well adjusted by a nonlinear model. Although pretreatment enhances substrate accessibility, the occurrence of an exceedingly high amount of lignin byproducts within the pretreated material reduces considerably its potential degradability.