Changes in Nutritive Value and Digestion Kinetics of Canola Seed Due to Microwave Irradiation

This study aimed to evaluate effects of 800 W microwave irradiation for 2, 4 and 6 min on chemical composition, antinutritional factors, ruminal dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) degradability, and in vitro CP digestibility of canola seed (CS). Nylon bags of untreated or irradiated CS were suspended in the rumen of three bulls from 0 to 48 h. Protein subfractions of untreated and microwave irradiated CS before and after incubation in the rumen were monitored by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Microwave irradiation had no effect on chemical composition of CS (p>0.05). There was a linear decrease (p<0.001) in the phytic acid and glucosinolate contents of CS as irradiation time increased. Microwave irradiation for 2, 4 and 6 min decreased the phytic acid content of CS by 8.2, 27.6 and 48.6%, respectively. The total glucosinolate contents of CS microwave irradiated for 2, 4 and 6 min decreased by 41.5, 54.7 and 59.0% respectively, compared to untreated samples. The washout fractions of DM and CP and degradation rate of the b fraction of CP decreased linearly (p<0.001) as irradiation time increased. Microwave irradiation for 2, 4 and 6 min decreased effective degradability (ED) of CP at a ruminal outflow rate of 0.05 h by 4.7, 12.3 and 21.0%, respectively. Microwave irradiation increased linearly (p<0.001) in vitro CP digestibility of ruminally undegraded CS collected after 16 h incubation. Electrophoresis results showed that napin subunits of untreated CS disappeared completely within the zero incubation period, whereas cruciferin subunits were degraded in the middle of the incubation period (16 h incubation period). In 4 and 6 min microwave irradiated CS, napin subunits were degraded after 4 and 16 h incubation periods, respectively, and cruciferin subunits were not degraded untile 24 h of incubation. In conclusion, it seems that microwave irradiation not only protected CP of CS from ruminal degradation, but also increased in vitro digestibility of CP. Moreover, microwave irradiation was effective in reducing glucosinolate and phytic acid contents of CS. (