The Digestibility of Steam-Pelleted Wheat Bran

Abstract

The aleurone layer is the major wheat bran component containing significant amounts of nutritionally important materials (McMasters et al., 1964). However, its cells have such relatively heavy cell walls compared to endosperm cells that the question arises as to whether the nutrients in raw whole bran or shorts are completely available. Work by Rohrlich and Rasmus (1955) shows clearly that protein digestibility in aleurone cells depends on the ease with which enzymes can penetrate the cell wall structure.Cave et al. (1965a, b) found that certain wheat milling fractions gave relatively low metabolizable energy values and poor protein utilization when they constituted an important part of chick diets. They also showed that steam pelleting wheat bran increased its metabolizable energy (M.E.) in chick diets by as much as 30 percent over unpelleted mash. An increase of 17 percent was found for steam-pelleted wheat shorts over unpelleted material. Pelleting poultry rations .