Sesbania spp.
General information
Sesbania sesban (L) Merrill is a short-lived fodder
shrub or small tree. This legume can tolerate wide temperature ranges, acidic
soils and waterlogging, as well as soil salinity. S. sesban grows rapidly and is useful as fodder and green manure.
This species has long been used for feeding livestock and for soil improvement
in India and Africa.
Productivity and
nutrient composition
Biomass production of Sesbania sesban has been reported to be 4.8 t / ha and N in the
above-ground biomass to be 0.1 t / ha (Creamer and Baldwin, 2000). S. aculeata
yields in the range of 1 to 1.5 t / ha of seeds (see Hossain and Becker, 2001).
The crude protein contents of Sesbania species
(Table 5) are higher than those reported for conventional legumes, such as
chickpea, mungbean and cowpea. Sesbania sp. are, however, deficient in
essential amino acids except for leucine, tryptophan and histidine (see Table
10). Sesbania sp. are generally a good source of essential fatty acids (Hossain
and Becker, 2001).
The
organic matter digestibility of Sesbania seeds ranges from 67 - 72 per cent
and nitrogen solubility in alkali from 81 - 89 per cent (Hossain and
Becker, 2002).
Antinutrients
A potent antinutrient in Sesbania sp. in
addition to the ones presented in Table 6 are the non-starch polysaccharides
(NSP). The seeds contain about 30 - 42 per cent endosperm, 75 per
cent of which is made of an NSP, galactomannan (Chandra and Farooqui,
1979).
Soaking overnight in water followed by
autoclaving has been shown to be effective in significantly bringing down
levels of various antinutrients in Sesbania seed meal (Table 7).
Fish feeding trials
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