1. Groups of chicks were given a low-residue diet with or without supplements of dietary fibre in the form of wheat bran, wheat straw or bagasse. Growth and food conversion efficiency (g weight gained/g food eaten; FCE) during the first 4 weeks of life were measured. 2. In every one of seven experiments supplementation of the diet with 100 g wheat bran/kg resulted in improved growth, and in thr...

Pleurotus ostreatus (MTCC142) was cultivated on three different agro wastes viz: Wheat straw, Soybean straw and Chick pea straw. Total antioxidant, reducing power and total phenolic content effect of the extracts was determined by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method and Folin-Ciocalteu method. The aqueous extract of P.ostreatus cultivated on soybean straw exhibited good antioxidant acti...

Lengthy straw/stalk of biomass may not be directly fed into grinders such as hammer mills and disc refiners. Hence, biomass needs to be preprocessed using coarse grinders like a knife mill to allow for efficient feeding in refiner mills without bridging and choking. Size reduction mechanical energy was directly measured for switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), wheat straw (Triticum aestivum L.), ...

The information presented in this publication represents current research findings on the production of glucose and xylose from straw and subsequent direct fermentation of both sugars to ethanol. Agricultural straw was subjected to thermal or alkali pulping prior to enzymatic saccharification. When wheat straw (WS) was treated at 170 degrees C for 30-60 min at a water-to-solids ratio of 7:1, th...

The role of photodegradation, an abiotic process, has been largely overlooked during straw decomposition in mesic ecosystems. We investigated the mass loss and chemical structures of straw decomposition in response to elevated UV-B radiation with or without soil contact over a 12-month litterbag experiment. Wheat and maize straw samples with and without soil contact were exposed to three radiat...

a solid state fermentation method was used to utilize wheat straw as substrates for citric acid production by using aspergillus niger atcc 9142. the plackett burman design (pbd) of experiments was used to test the relative importance of the variables affecting production such as moisture content, age of spore, inoculum size, initial ph of substrate, methanol concentration, incubation temperatur...

The influence of application of increasing doses of selenium (0.05 mg, 0.10 mg and 0.20 mg/kg) into soil in pot experiments, with NPK fertilization of spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L., variety Banti), on the biomass yield (grain, straw, roots) and on selenium accumulation was observed. Selenium in the form of sodium selenite (Na2SeO3·5H2O) and the NPK nutrients in the form of LAD-27, Ca(H2PO4...