Vromol and Starea were prepared by mixing, respectively, urea and molasses in the ratio 1:3 and 1:6 and urea and starch in the ratio 1:6 and 1:9 following the standard technologies. While uromol is an open pan boiled (30 min) product, starea is an autoclaved (1.05 kg/cm2:15 min) product. Uromol solution was absorbed into ground wheat straw and dried alongwith starea dough at 50° C for 72 h. In starea, with 1:6 and 1:9 ratio, of the total-N (4.69 and 3.51 %) 57.7 and 48.8% was found to be urease resistant and was termed as bound-N. The rumen degradability of this bound-N was 49.5 and 43.9%, respectively. Conversely, in case of uromol, only 18.3 and 15.7% of the total-N was present as bound-N. The respective rumen degradability at 1:3 and 1:6 ratio was 55.7 and 46.7 %. The bound - N of both these products was highly stable in the abomasal environment. The unprocessed but similarly dried starea mixtures (50° C for 72 h) resulted in a considerable binding of urea-N (37.6 and 32.1% at 1:6 and 1:9 ratios) and the degradability of these bound fractions was only 22.0 and 10.9 %. Such an effect was not observed with uromol control. Ammonia production (in-vitro) was directly related to the free urea-N content of the product. This was more so in the case of uromol than starea. The conset|uences of the variable degree of urea binding (6 to 50%) and limitations of uromol technology have been discussed
