Effect of sodium hydroxide and alkaline hydrogen peroxide treatment on physical and chemical characteristics and IVOMD of mustard straw

Abstract

Mustard straw (MS) was soaked for 6 h in the solutions containing 0% (S 0), 1% (S 1) or 2% (S 2) sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and 0% (H 0) or 1.5% (H 1) hydrogen peroxide (H 2O 2) following a 3×2 factorial design. The pH of the untreated MS (near neutral) was increased to more than 10 after treatment with NaOH (S 1H 0 and S 2H 0) or alkaline hydrogen peroxide (AHP; S 1H 1 and S 2H 1). The treatment effect on tenacity was not significant. The NDF and ADF contents of MS increased significantly ( p<0.01) in the treatment S 0H 1, whereas these decreased significantly ( p<0.01) in the treatments S 2H 0 and S 2H 1. However, the change in NDF and ADF was not significant in S 0H 0, S 1H 0 and S 1H 1 treatments. The content of both NDF and ADF decreased linearly ( p<0.01) with increasing level of NaOH in the soaking medium. The effect of various treatments on cellulose content was almost similar to that of NDF and ADF. The acid detergent lignin content of MS increased significantly ( p<0.01) in case of S 1H 0, S 0H 1and S 1H 1 but the differences were not significant among UMS, S 0H 0, S 2H 0 and S 2H 1. The IVOMD content of untreated MS was 162 g kg −1 DM and it increased significantly ( p<0.01) when straw was soaked in S 1H 0, S 2H 0, S 1H 1 and S 2H 1, whereas it reduced slightly due to either water (S 0H 0) or H 2O 2 (S 0H 1) treatment. With the increasing level of NaOH, the IVOMD improved significantly ( p<0.01). It is concluded that the cell wall constituents and IVOMD of MS were modified by NaOH with or without H 2O 2 in a way that in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) of treated MS was 82–112% units higher than untreated MS.