Chemical foot print of precomposted dung material of Elephus maximus and Bos taurus through GC–MS profile

Abstract

The growth and reproductive potential of composting earthworm is influenced by the chemical composition of initial feed mixture. Thus the GC-MS technique is used to determine the biochemical foot prints of the vermibed substrate before composting process. The present study conducted to analyze the chemical composition of precomposted animal dung material of Elephus maximus and Bos taurus by GC-MS analysis. The dung materials were precomposted up to 14 days and used for the analysis. The GC-MS spectrogram of Elephus maximus and Bos taurus showed 20 and 15 different compounds respectively. Predominant levels of esters were observed in elephant dung, which were dominated by the esterified polyunsaturated fatty acids with maximum peak area for elaidinsaeure methyl ester (26.6%). In cow dung the maximum peak area was obtained for 1-Hydroxy-1-methyl) −2-Methyl tetrahydro −2 furanyl] − 4, 4, 14-Trimethylandrost- 9 (11) – ene −3, 6, 16 (17%) and alcohol were the dominant functional group followed by carboxylic acids and esters. Thus the results indicated that the presence of higher percentage of esterified poly unsaturated fatty acids in elephant dung reflects its higher quality suitable for vermicomposting, since the dietary unsaturated fatty acids have the positive impacts on the reproduction of earthworm by enhancing the functionality in sperm production.