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Degradation of cell walls of forages by sequential treatment with sodium hydroxide and a commercial cellulase preparation
Author(s) -
Hartley Roy D.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.2740340106
Subject(s) - cellulase , sodium hydroxide , chemistry , ferulic acid , straw , alkali metal , cell wall , lignin , agronomy , food science , cellulose , nuclear chemistry , biochemistry , organic chemistry , biology , inorganic chemistry
Cell walls of barley straw (whole sample and stem), Italian ryegrass (shoot) and lucerne (mature stem) were treated sequentially with NaOH followed by a commercial ‘cellulase’ preparation and, in other experiments, with the cellulase followed by the alkali. The phenolic compounds released by NaOH were determined and related to increases in the degradability of the walls as measured with cellulase. Two sequential treatments of the cell walls of barley straw increased degradability from 11% on treatment with cellulase alone to 87%, compared with increases from 72 to 99% and from 19 to 54% for the ryegrass and lucerne walls respectively. The first alkali treatment released ferulic and p ‐coumaric acids from the walls of barley and ryegrass together with other u.v. absorbing compounds, whereas the compounds released by the second alkali treatment did not include these two acids. The treatment with alkali did not release either ferulic acid or p ‐coumaric acid from the walls of lucerne and the amounts of other u.v. absorbing compounds that were released were much smaller.