AN APPROACH TO THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND IN VITRO DIGESTIBILITY OF MULBERRY AND TRICHANTHERA LEAF MEALS FOR PIGS

SUMMARY Four representative samples from either mulberry (Morus alba) or trichanthera (Trichanthera gigantea) leaf meals were examined. The samples were obtained at random from periodical harvested foliages in plantations located at Maracay, Venezuela. Several indices related to foliage physico-chemical composition and in vitro, either by the pepsin/pancreatin or faecal incubation values, were determined in leaves plus petioles of the foliages after sun-dried and milled. Water solubility and in vitro pepsin/pancreatin digestibility indices of several fractions from the examined samples were the best in mulberry leaf meal, as compared to trichanthera leaf meal. The results from this comparison were more obvious for N solubility (P<0.05) and in vitro pepsin/pancreatin N digestibility (P<0.001). Overall, faecal in vitro digestibility values of DM, organic matter and N were higher, approximately 10%, than that corresponding to pepsin/pancreatin in vitro digestibility. In vitro organic matter digestibility of mulberry and trichanthera leaf meal, as determined by pepsin/pancreatin incubation was 57.2 and 44.4% (P<0.01), and 61.1 and 45.5% (P<0.001) when the faecal inocculum was used. It was confirmed that mulberry leaf meal shows a higher nutritive value for pigs as contrasted to trichanthera leaf meal, from the point of view of its N and organic matter content and utilization.