Rate and extent of digestion of the ethanol-soluble and neutral detergent-insoluble fractions of corn grain.

The objectives of this study were to partition corn grain into three digestible fractions and to measure the rate of disappearance of these fractions in vitro. Seventeen corn grain samples with varied fiber concentrations were extracted with either 80% ethanol or neutral detergent to obtain estimates of the pool size and digestion kinetics of the A, B1, B2, and C fractions. The carbohydrate soluble in 80% ethanol averaged only 2.6+/-.3% of the DM, although 80% ethanol extracted 7.1+/-1.2% of DM of corn grain. The ethanol-soluble fraction of corn grain contained protein, ether-extractable compounds, and a small amount of ash in addition to carbohydrate. Because of this chemical heterogeneity and because of the small size of the ethanol-soluble fraction, it was not possible to determine the digestion rate of this fraction by measuring gas production. The NDF content of the corn grain was 10.6+/-.7% of DM and was highly digestible (94.6+/-1.4%). The digestible NDF contributed 9.5% of the total gas production from corn grain. Because the size, digestibility, and digestion rate of the digestible NDF fraction varied little among corn grain samples, it is not necessary to routinely analyze the digestion kinetics of the digestible NDF fraction of dried corn grain. An average gas production curve of this fraction can be used as a base to subtract from the total gas production curve to generate the gas production curve of the neutral detergent-soluble fraction for dried, ground corn grain samples.