Nutritive value of botanical fractions of Moringa oleifera and Moringa stenopetala grown in the mid-Rift Valley of southern Ethiopia

Nutritive value of botanical fractions (leaves, twigs, pods and whole forage) of Moringa oleifera and Moringa stenopetala were evaluated based on chemical composition, in sacco dry matter (DM) degradability, in vitro gas production and in vitro organic matter digestibility. The objective was to characterize the nutritive value of the different morphological fractions in order to determine their potential as alternative sources of livestock feed. The crude protein content (g/kg DM) was highest (P < 0.05) in M. oleifera leaves (361.2) followed by M. stenopetala leaves (334.4) and lowest in M. oleifera twigs (79.1) and M. stenopetala pods (89.2). The fiber (NDF, ADF and ADL) contents were higher (P < 0.05) in the twigs and pods than the leaves and whole forage in both species. The different morphological fractions of both species had high mineral content, although the Na content was low or marginal in most fractions except whole forage and green pods of M. stenopetala. The in sacco DM degradability ranked the morphological fractions in the order of leaves > whole forage = pods > twigs after 24 h of incubation time. The potential degradability (A + B) was highest (P < 0.05) in M. oleifera twigs (97.9 %) and M. stenopetala leaves (98.5 %) and lowest in the pods of both species (64.4–69.5 %) with intermediate values in all other fractions. No significant differences were observed in the instantly fermentable fraction (a) and rate of gas production (c), whereas lower (P > 0.05) insoluble but slowly fermentable (b) and potential gas production (a + b) were recorded in the pods than in the other morphological fractions of both species. The study showed that the different morphological fractions of the two Moringa species are good source of nutrients with high degradability which could be used as potential supplements to low quality tropical roughages.