A study on the nutritional characteristics of some plants and their effects on ruminal microbial fermentation and protozoa population

AMB Express

Table 6 The measured total volatile fatty acids (mmol/l) and their ingredients (% of TVFA) from some plants incubated in the culture medium after 24 h incubation

Plant species	TVFA		Acetate		Propionate		Butyrate		Valerate		iso-Valerate		pH24h
Plant species	2019	2020	2019	2020	2019	2020	2019	2020	2019	2020	2019	2020	2019	2020
Dracocephalum moldavica L	58.1^d	53.7^d	63.3^ab	63.0^a	19.8^b	19.7^abc	13.9	14.0	1.25	1.20	0.40	0.38	6.90^a	6.87^a
Melissa officinalis L	61.5^b	56.9^c	64.0^a	62.8^a	19.3^b	18.0^c	13.8	14.7	1.20	1.30	0.45	0.38	6.92^a	6.91^a
Ruta graveolens L	64.5^a	60.5^ab	60.5^c	60.8^c	23.7^a	21.4^a	13.2	14.0	1.38	1.40	0.41	0.42	6.89^a	6.86^ab
Perovskia abrotanoides Kar	56.6^e	51.8^e	63.5^ab	63.0^a	19.8^b	18.7^bc	13.5	14.6	1.22	1.32	0.45	0.43	6.91^a	6.85^ab
Cichorium intybus L	63.5^a	59.1^b	61.6^bc	63.1^a	22.7^a	21.0^ab	13.5	13.7	1.33	1.33	0.41	0.38	6.89^a	6.88^a
Borago officinalis L	59.7^c	55.0^d	62.0^abc	61.2^bc	22.8^a	21.7^a	13.3	13.7	1.35	1.40	0.41	0.41	6.92^a	6.90^a
Peganum harmala L	63.8^a	60.0^ab	63.3^ab	62.2^ab	18.2^b	18.3^c	14.5	15.0	1.47	1.40	0.49	0.48	6.89^a	6.86^ab
Teucrium polium L	64.0^a	60.7^a	62.7^ab	63.1^a	19.9^b	19.2^abc	13.6	14.3	1.35	1.22	0.38	0.45	6.82^b	6.80^b
Medicago sativa	63.9^a	59.9^ab	62.2^abc	62.5^a	19.7^b	20.2^abc	14.2	14.6	1.42	1.26	0.42	0.49	6.89^a	6.86^ab
SEM	0.55	0.62	0.27	0.19	0.40	0.33	0.14	0.16	0.028	0.024	0.014	0.014	0.0076	0.0078
p-value	< 0.0001	< 0.0001	0.026	0.001	0.0004	< 0.0001	0.52	0.44	0.36	0.479	0.72	0.34	0.05	0.0006

Means with different letters among the same row indicate significant differences according to the p-value presented
TVFA total volatile fatty acids, SEM standard error of the mean