[The effect of methanol extracts of sawdust on the digestion of cellulose, hay and wheat bran in vitro].

An experiment was treated to investigate the effects of an extract of conditioned beech sawdust (80% methanol extraction) on the in vitro digestion of cellulose and on the digestion of hay and wheat bran diet (80 to 20%) in a artificial rumen (Rusitec). The addition of 10, 25, 50, 75 mg of extract to 0.25 g cellulose reduced significantly its digestibility from 94.5 to 92.9%; 90.4; 85.2; 82.1 and 80.1%, respectively. The addition of 0.6, 1.5 and 3.0 g of extract to 14 g diet DM in Rusitec decreased the digestibility from 49.6 to 41.8%. Gas (CO2, H2, CH4) production increased as well as the production of total volatile fatty acids: acetic, propionic, n-butyric and isobutyric, glucose utilization and ATP production were also better. The addition of extracts did not influence significantly the effectiveness of microbial proteosynthesis (YATP). The methanol extract of conditioned beech sawdust contained reducing sugars (saccharides), besides the phenolic substances (syringaldehyde and vanillin); these sugars influenced diet fermentation in Rusitec.