Effect of Plant Containing Secondary Metabolites on In vitro Methane Production and Feed Fermentation with Buffalo Rumen Liquor

The present study was conducted to screen the plants containing secondary metabolites for their antimethanogenic activity by in vitro gas production system. A total 14 plant parts viz., leaves of babool (Acacia arabica), shirish (Albizzia lebbek), kathal (Artocarpus spp.), eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus), pakar (Ficus infectoria), mentha (Mentha piperita), karanj (Pongomia pinnata), oak (Quercus spp.), arjuna (Terminalia arjuna), asoka (Aaraca indica), guava (Psidium gujava), mahua seed cake (Madhuka indica), harad seed pulp (Terminalia chebula) and seed of tamarind (Tamarindus indica) were screened using wheat straw and concentrate mixture (50: 50) as substrate and buffalo rumen liquor as inoculum. All the plant parts were added at 10% level. There was no effect on gas production by inclusion of any of the plant part, however, significant reduction in methane was observed by inclusion dry powder of eucalyptus leaves (E. globules), deoiled mahua cake (M. indica), and harad seed pulp (T. chebula) by 20.16, 22.41 and 17.48 per cent, respectively as compared to control. The in vitro true dry matter digestibility of feed, production of TVFA and its fractions and acetate to propionate ratio were also similar with all the plant parts except with tamarid (T. indica) seeds and shirish (A. lebbek) leaves, where TVFA was significantly higher than control. Various combinations of deoiled mahua cake and harad did not have any additive effect on inhibition of in vitro methane production. The results revealed that the plants containing secondary metabolites tested, have potential to be used as feed additive.