Abstract:
The structural constituents, natural cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin, in
graminaceous food materials, faeces, and the crude fibre isolated from these have
been determined. The results showed that:
(1) crude fibre is almost wholly composed of natural cellulose but that the method for its isolation underestimates the natural cellulose content
of the feed and of the faeces;
(2) natural cellulose is the most digestible portion and lignin the least
digestible portion of the cell-wall structure. From this finding it is
inferred that a closer association exists between the lignin and the
hemicelluloses than between the former and the natural cellulose
of the cell-wall complex;
(3) with regard to roughages the standard feeding stuffs analysis does not
divide the carbohydrate complex into substances of relatively low and
substances of relatively high digestibility.
