Non-Starch Polysaccharide Content of Commonly Used Poultry Feed Ingredients

A study was conducted to evaluate the non-starch polysaccharide (NSP) content of commonly used feed ingredients viz., maize (Zea mays), pearl millet (Pennisetum typhoides), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) meal, sunflower (Helianthus annuus) meal, soyabean (Glycine max) meal, deoiled rice (Oryza sativa) bran and rice polish. Six samples from each ingredient were analysed for neutral and acidic NSP fractions by enzymatic colorimetric method. Among cereals, pearl millet was found to contain significantly (P<0.05) high content of total, soluble and insoluble NSP (9.0, 2.67 and 6.32%) when compared to maize and sorghum. With regard to vegetable protein sources, sunflower meal had higher (P<0.05) levels of insoluble (18.31±1.07) and total NSP (21.98±0.87) compared to groundnut meal and soya bean meal. De oiled rice bran was found to contain significantly (P<0.05) higher level of total (30.79±0.86), insoluble (27.39±0.61) and soluble NSP (3.40±0.36) to that of rice polish. Among different constituents of NSP, neutral NSP were high in all the ingredients compared to acidic NSP. The acidic NSP were lowest in cereals (0.42–0.48%) followed by cereal byproducts (1.39–2.31%) and vegetable protein meals (2.05–4.34%). Present study revealed that the commonly used poultry feed ingredients are found to have lower levels of soluble NSP when compared to that of insoluble NSP content.