Journal
LAND
Volume 11, Issue 12, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/land11122271
Keywords
Celtis australis; altitude; nutritive value; composition change
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Celtis australis, an important agroforestry tree species in the Himalayan region, plays a crucial role in sustaining the life of rural communities. The nutritive values of this species are influenced by altitude and harvesting season, showing significant seasonal and altitude variations. Potassium, calcium, crude protein, and starch content increase with altitude, while dry matter content, phosphorus, and soluble sugars decrease with altitude.
Celtis australis is an important agroforestry tree in the Himalayan region providing major fodder to the livestock and many other needs for sustaining life in local rural communities. Including their fodder value and wide altitudinal distribution ranges, it is extracted by the villagers in large scale during the lean period (May to June). Thus, the aim was to understand the nutritive values of the species influenced by the altitude and harvesting season. For this investigation, leaves of C. australis were collected from four different altitudes during the months of February to December. The nutritive value of collected foliage, i.e., dry matter, ash, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, crude protein, crude fiber, starch, sugar, and phenolic were estimated by using stranded methods. The results of present study reveal that significant seasonal variations have been observed for the chemical composition of C. australis tree foliage collected from different altitudes. On an average, between seasons, crude protein ranged from 9.17 to 16.97%, phosphorus 0.08 to 0.16%, potassium 0.28 to 0.76%, crude fiber 13.94 to 19.80%, sugars 1.11 to 1.83%, and starch 4.79 to 6.53%. Altitude also significantly influenced nutritive content. Between altitudes, phosphorus ranged from 0.10 to 0.11%, potassium 0.42 to 0.50%, crude protein 12.66 to 14.02%, crude fiber 1.61 to 1.71%, sugars 1.45 to 1.66%, starch 4.71 to 6.31%, and phenolic 0.43 to 0.78%. Potassium, calcium, crude protein, and starch were significantly positively correlated with altitude of foliage collection. However, dry matter content, phosphorus, and soluble sugars, significantly correlated inversely with altitude.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available