Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate changes in proximate and chemical components of cassava root sieviates (CRS) treated with extracted enzymes obtained from (a) Aspergillus niger (An); (b) Rhizopus stolonifer (Rs); (c) Trichoderma viridae (Tv) and (d) Mucor mucedo (Mm) applied on autoclaved CRS at 250 ml/kg. Another treatment had a commercial enzyme Roxazyme G2G (RG2G) as the degrading agent. At the end of the seventh day after enzyme application, crude protein, ash and metabolizable energy content increased but crude fibre, pectin, neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre (ADF), acid detergent lignin (ADL), hemicellulose and cellulose content decreased. The highest value of metabo-lizable energy (ME), ash and crude protein were: 2807.81 kcal/kg, 17.32 and 18.32 g/100g dry matter, respectively obtained when enzymes obtained from A. niger, T. viridae and A. niger were added respectively. Results of levels of sugars (mg/mL) in undegraded CRS showed that glucose level increased by 72.4, 67.2, 53.8, 50.1 and 32.5% when enzyme preparations from A. niger, T. viridae, R. stolonifer, M. mucedo and Roxazyme G2G were applied on CRS respectively. Results obtained indicate that the use of enzymes from the above named fungi defiberised the CRS and hence promoted better bioavailability of the hidden nutrients in it.

Key words: Cassava root sieviate, enzymes, biodegradation, nutrient enhancement.