Nutrient and Mineral Contents, and In vitro Digestibility of Kermes Oak (Quercus coccifera L.) and Mock Privet (Phillyrea latifolia L.)

Abstract

This study was conducted to exhibit the importance of kermes oak (Quercus coccifera L.) and mock privet (Phillyrea latifolia L.) in the grazing system and animal feeding. For this purpose, the leaves of these two evergreen shrubs were harvested by hand-clipping in their early vegetative stages at Şarköy, Tekirdağ, Turkey, in April 2019. The nutrient and mineral contents and in vitro digestibility of kermes oak and mock privet was determined by using in vitro gas production technique. In this study, it was found that there was a statistically significant difference between the kermes oak and mock privet in terms of the contents of dry matter, crude ash, crude cellulose, neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber and acid detergent lignin, and the minerals of zinc, copper, iron, and potassium (p<0.05). Furthermore, it has been observed that these two shrub plants yielded different values in terms of metabolizable energy and organic matter digestibility (p<0.05). In this study, the time-dependent mean gas production of the two evergreen shrubs was found to be significant at all times except the 96th hour; and gas production kinetics made a significant difference in b, the volume of the gas production from slowly fermentable (p<0.05). The volume of the gas production from slowly fermentable (b) was found to be higher in the mock privet than the kermes oak. Results derived from this study indicate that even the differences between the kermes oak and mock privet in terms of nutrient and mineral contents, both shrubs might be used more adequately as an alternative feed source during the grazing season where they are widely distributed.