Chemical Composition, Fibre Fraction and Anti-Nutritional Substances of Semi-arid Browse Forages of North-Eastern Nigeria

181 ABSTRACT: The nutritive value of leaves from eight different browse trees and shrubs were analyzed. They include Ficus polita, Ficus thonningii, Batryospermum paradoxum, Kigalia africana, Celtis integuifolis, Khaya senegalensis, Leptadenia lancifolia, and Ziziphus abyssinica. were collected from Gwoza, in Borno, State, Nigeria. The browse samples were analyzed for chemical composition, fibre fractions and anti-nutritive components of their leaves. Results showed no significant differences (P>0.05) in the DM content, which ranged from 95.2 to 97.0%. Leptadenia lancifolia, Ficus thonningi and Ficus polita recorded higher CP content which was significantly higher (P<0.05) than the CP content of the other browse plants analyzed. A range of 2.00 to 5.00% and 8.00 to 18.00% were recorded for EE and Ash values for the eight browse plants. The values reported for minerals showed that Ficus thonningii had the lowest value of Ca (0.75%) while Kigalia africana was low in P and Mg (10.00 and 0.15%). Their fibre contents showed a range of 37.3 to 51.2, 16.2 to 41.2, 4.9 to 12.7, 45.84 to 50.92, 12.4 to 26.90g/100g for NDF, ADF, ADL, ADIash and Cellulose respectively. The values reported for anti nutritive factors range from 0.08 to 0.39 for TCT, 0.24 to 0.65 for phenolics, 2.02 to 2.55 for Saponin, 4.58 to 8.15 for Oxalate, 2.85 to 5.81 for phytate, 0.04 to 0.08 for HCN and 0.0005 to 0.002mg/g. The results showed that the browse species studied have good nutrients contents, low and safe levels of anti-nutritional factors, and may therefore form good feed resources for modern intensive ruminant animal production.