Seasonal and Altitudinal Variation in Chemical Composition of Celtis australis L. Tree Foliage

Celtis australis is an important agroforestry tree in the Himalayan region providing major fodder to livestock and many other needs for sustaining life local rural communities. Including their value wide altitudinal distribution ranges, it extracted by villagers large scale during lean period (May June). Thus, aim was understand nutritive values of species influenced altitude harvesting season. For this investigation, leaves C. were collected from four different altitudes months February December. The foliage, i.e., dry matter, ash, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, crude protein, fiber, starch, sugar, phenolic estimated using stranded methods. results present study reveal that significant seasonal variations have been observed chemical composition foliage altitudes. On average, between seasons, protein ranged 9.17 16.97%, phosphorus 0.08 0.16%, potassium 0.28 0.76%, fiber 13.94 19.80%, sugars 1.11 1.83%, starch 4.79 6.53%. Altitude also significantly content. Between altitudes, 0.10 0.11%, 0.42 0.50%, 12.66 14.02%, 1.61 1.71%, 1.45 1.66%, 4.71 6.31%, 0.43 0.78%. Potassium, positively correlated with collection. However, matter content, soluble sugars, inversely altitude.