Nutritive and replacement value of hungry rice ‘‘Acha’’ (<i>Digitaria exilis</i>) grain for maize grain in broiler starter chicks

Abstract

The hungry rice grains (HG) were determined for nutrients and anti nutrients and evaluated for growth performance. Five dietary diets were formulated with AG replacing maize at 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 %. A total of 150 7days-old broiler chicks (Abor-Acre) were randomly allotted to five treatments of 30 birds each, replicated thrice (10 birds each) in a completely randomized design for 28 days. The results of the proximate composition of hungry rice grains showed 87.00% dry matter, 12.00 % crude protein, 6.49% ether extracts, 8.57% crude fibre, 5.70% ash, 67.24% nitrogen free extracts and gross energy of 3556.06 Kcal/kg. The anti-nutrient values of acha grains contained 0.18 mg/100g of tannin, 1.03 mg/100g of phytate, 0.90 mg/100g of oxalate and 0.05mg/100g of cyanide. The mineral element of acha grains showed the following trend (mg/100g) K (215.82)<P (131.00)<Mg(46.02)<S(32.40)<Ca (28.17)< Fe (22.82ppm)<Na (11.30). The HG is a rich source of amino acids {methionine (5.19 g/16gN), leucine (4.26 g/16gN), valine (4.11 g/16gN), phenylalanine (2.34 g/16gN), lysine (1.96 g/16gN), isoleucine (1.39 g/16gN), arginine (1.29 g/16gN), histidine (1.35 g/16gN), glutamic acid (5.63 g/16gN), alanine (4.16g/16N) and limiting in tryptophan (0.98g/16gN). The birds on 100% HG had better (P<0.05) growth rate compared with those on 75, 50, 25 and 0%. The feed intake of birds fed 100% HG (1999.33g) was higher (P<0.05) than those fed 50% (1852.31g) but similar (P>0.05) to those on 75% (1948.26g) and 0% (1972.90g). The feed: gain of birds on 25 % (1.97) HG was superior (P<0.05) compared with those of other diets.

Pasting Properties of Acha-Green Banana Composite Flour Fortified with Cowpea Flour and Quality Evaluation of Gluten-Free Biscuit Made from the Blends

“…Pasting properties of the flour samples were determined using a Rapid Visco Analyzer 3C (RVA, Model 3C, Newport Scientific PTY Ltd, Sydney, Australia) [75]. Three grams (3g) of each sample was weighed into a canister and 25ml of distilled water was dispensed into the canister containing the sample and mixed thoroughly to form slurry.…”

“…The potassium content in the biscuits significantly (p<0.05) decreased with increase in cowpea flour substitution ranging from 78.84mg/100g in the biscuit prepared from the unfortified flour to 56.90mg/100g in the 50% cowpea flour substituted biscuit. Potassium is the dominant mineral element present in banana pulp and peel [73] and in acha grains [74,75]. The decreased in potassium values with increase in cowpea flour substitution could therefore be due to higher content of potassium in achagreen banana composite flour than in cowpea flour.…”