Detannification of Oak (Quercus leucotrichophora) Leaves Through Simple Physical Treatments

Oak (Quercus leucotrichophora) leaves are adequately available as scarcity fodder in North West Himalayan Region of India, but poisoning, even death due to its consumption, limits its use as a sole feed in hill cattle, sheep and goat. Information on easily adaptable technology for detoxification and detannification of leaves are lacking in the literature. Therefore, present experiment was planned for a nutrient protective detoxification and detannification process of Q. leucotrichophora leaves. Five different physical treatments viz., water soaking (12h), sun-drying (5d), shade-drying (5d), chopping and chopping and water soaking of locally collected fresh leaves were done, taking fresh leaves as control. The composition of fresh leaves remained comparable to that of different processed leaves except a small decrease (P<0.05) in total carbohydrate content due to water-soaking and chopping and water-soaking. All the physical treatments were effective in reducing all the polyphenols. Reduction was the maximum for hydrolysable tannins (87.54%), followed by total tannins (70.35%), total phenolics (58.17%), condensed tannins (24.39%) and non-tannin phenolics (1.85%). Maximum reduction in hydrolysable tannin (87.54%) and condensed tannin (24.39%) levels were achieved by chopping combined with water soaking, and least reduction was by shade-drying. On the basis of results, it may be concluded that chopping followed by water soaking would be the best nutrient protective processing technique for detoxification and detannification of Q. leucotrichophora leaves.