Abstract

This investigation was conducted to study the effect of protected kapok (Ceiba pentandra) seed oil supplementation upon the in vitro relative proportion of linoleic acid and ruminal fermentation parameters using rumen fluid of Etawah crossbred goat and elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) as  feed. Research materials used were elephant grass (EG), kapok seed oil (KSO), lactating Etawah crossbred goat (ECG) rumen fluid, potassiumhydroxide (KOH) and calciumchloride(CaCl₂). There were two treatment factors, namely KSO supplementation as factor I (S) and protection as factor II (P). The first factor consists of four levels, namely 5% (S1), 10% (S2), 15% (S3) and without KSO supplementation (S0), while the second factor consists of 5 levels, namely: 0% (P0), 25%(P1), 50% (P2), 75% (P3) and100% (P4), thus there were 15 combinations of treatment and one control (S0P0). Measured variables consisting of: in vitro neutral detergent fiber  digestibility (IVNDFD), the molar proportion of acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid, acetic acid: propionic acid (A/P) ratio, the relative proportion of linoleic acid, stearic acid and ruminal lipid iodine number (IN). The results showed that 5% of unprotected KSO supplementation increased the molar proportion of propionic acid from 21.30% in the EG without supplementation becomes to 23.67% (P <0.05) without any negative effect on IVNDFD. Supplementation of protected KSO at  10 and 75% protection level  increased (P <0.05) the molar proportion of propionic  acid significantly (35.49%) with A / P ratio: 1.68 without significant IVNDFD variation. Increasing levels of KSO supplementation (up to 15%) increased the relative proportion of ruminal linoleic acid, followed by increasing in iodine number. The combination between KSO supplementation and protection  increased the ruminal linoleic acid relative proportion and lipid iodine number, were 47.14% and 51.09, respectively. The KSO supplementation at the level of 10% with 75% protection level can resulted in the same proportion of linoleic acid to 15% KSO supplementation with 75% protection level (45.39 and 46.50 and 97%, respectively) with higher IVNDFD (P<0.05), namely 50.97 vs. 45.44%).

Key words: Kapok seed oil, protection, linoleic acid, ruminal fermentability, elephant grass, Etawah crossbred goat, in vitro, linoleic  acid.