Abstract

MOJICA-RODRIGUEZ, José Edwin; CASTRO-RINCON, Edwin; CARULLA-FORNAGUERA, Juan  and  LASCANO-AGUILAR, Carlos Eduardo. Effect of the species and the regrowth age on the fatty acid profile of tropical legumes and shrubs. Corpoica cienc. tecnol. agropecu. [online]. 2017, vol.18, n.3, pp.463-477. ISSN 0122-8706.  https://doi.org/10.21930/rcta.vol18_num3_art:738.

The effect of three regrowth ages (4, 8 and 12 weeks) on forage yield, nutritional quality and fatty acid profile were evaluated in herbaceous legumes: Clitoria ternatea, Pueraria phaseoloides, Canavalia brasiliensis, Centrosema molle, Centrosema macrocarpum, Alysicarpus vaginalis, y Lablab purpureus; in shrubby legumes: Cratylia argentea, Gliricidia sepium, Desmodium velutinum, Cajanus cajan, Leucaena leucocephala (Fabaceae); and in a non-leguminous shrub: Moringa oleifera (Moringaceae). A split-plot design with random blocks was used, in which the forage species was the main plot and the regrowth age the subplot. The main fatty acids found in the species were palmitic acid (C16:0), linolenic acid (C18:3) and linoleic acid (C18:2). However, the fatty acid concentration differed between herbaceous and shrubby legumes compared to non-leguminous species, and decreased with regrowth age in both groups. The herbaceous legumes evaluated had a higher C18:2/ C18:3 proportion than shrubby legumes, which could in turn result in a higher conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) content in milk fat. The legume Cajanus cajan showed the highest (p<0.05) CLA (C18:3) and CLA precursors content in the three regrowth ages evaluated, suggesting that its use as bovine feed in dual-purpose systems can result in higher c9 t11 CLA concentrations in milk fat compared to other species.

Keywords : Fatty acids; Animal feeding; Forage; Milk; Rumiants.

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