Nutritive Constituents' Variation in Main Parts of Dendrocalamus Brandisii and the Silage Fermentation for Bamboo-Based Ruminant Feed.

Abstract

The booming food and feed industries strongly promote the exploration of new resources, while Dendrocalamus brandisii presents a promising potential for application for the vigorous growth and abundant harvest in Southeast Asia. To further utilize and increase the value of Dendrocalamus brandisii, firstly, main different parts were comparatively analyzed, while digestive and nutritional indexes were evaluated. As a result, bamboo shoots and leaves contain 26.3% and 20.7% of crude protein, respectively. The relative feed values of bamboo leaves, leaf stems, shoots shells and shoots all exceed 80%. As analyzed, bamboo leaves were promising for producing feed. Afterwards, the silage fermentation of bamboo leaves was carried out, during which the effects of different additives and the changes in nutritive index of bamboo leaves were investigated. By fermenting with composite bacterial inoculum of Lacticaseibacillus paracasei, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Bacillus subtilis, neutral-detergent fiber and acid-detergent fiber in leaves were decreased significantly by 22.68%~30.36% to produce 55.03 ~ 89.47 g/kg organic acids with over 60 g/kg domination of lactic acid, while crude protein was maintained well. The exogenous cellulase assisted Lacticaseibacillus paracesei fermentation exhibited the fastest decrease in pH (3.68) and the highest lactic acid content (78.68 g/kg). This study provides foundational data on Dendrocalamus brandisii's nutritive composition and demonstrates the feasibility of bamboo leaf-based feed production with potential for scaled implementation in bunkers. Moreover, this approach can facilitate the utilization of sustainable bamboo resource by converting it into high-value feed product and reduce pressure on conventional agricultural system.