Effects of Plant Secondary Metabolites on Methane Production and Fermentation Parameters in In vitro Ruminal Cultures
Keywords:
greenhouse gases, in vitro, methane, plant secondary metabolites, rumen, ruminal fermentationAbstract
Enteric fermentation process is of concern worldwide for its contribution to global warming. Methanogenesis process
represents besides its contribution to greenhouse gases emissions an energy loss to the animal. In the last years, new
strategy has been evaluated whether plant secondary metabolites can be used as natural additives to reduce ruminal
methane emissions. The present study investigated the effects of trans-cinnamic, caffeic, p-coumaric acids and
catechin hydrate, four plant secondary metabolites (PSMs) on methane production and fermentation in in vitro
ruminal cultures. The four PSMs were added anaerobically in a 6 mM concentration to 100 ml serum bottles
containing 500 mg grass hay as substrate, 10 ml rumen fluid collected from a fistulated sheep and 40 ml 141 DSM
culture medium. The bottles were incubated at 39 ̊C. The results showed that caffeic (p = 0.058) and p-coumaric (p =
0.052) acids tended to decrease methane production in comparison to control but the decrease was not statistic
significantly at α= 0.05. The other two PSMs had no significant effect on methane production. Addition of PSMs did
not affected the total gas volume, the pH and VFAs profile (P>0.05) in relation to the control (no PSM added).
Caffeic and p-coumaric acids in 6 mM concentration showed promising effects for decreasing ruminal methane
emissions without affecting ruminal fermentation parameters, further experiments with other concentrations needs to
be done.
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