Valor nutritivo de follaje de árboles y arbustos tropicales. I Aralia (Polyscias Guilfoylei Bailey)

Nutritive value from Aralia matizada, one ornamental shrub was determined in an experiment without using irrigation nor fertilization in both seasons of the year. The study was carried out with castrated lambs allocated in metabolism cages and using the total fecal collection with ad libitum forage supply adjustment. The crude protein content reached values of 15,0 and 24,9%, with a digestibility of 76,3 and 87,7% for both seasons, respectively. Organic matter digestibility was about 65,3 and 71,5%. The content of metabolizable energy ranged between 9,58 and 10,55 Mj/kg DM whereas the DM intake was 75,9 and 69.4 g/kg P,75 for the rainy and dry season, respectively. The nutritive value results, as well as the total nutrients intake suggested that this tropical shrub presents anappreciable nutriotional potential for ruminant feeding, especially for small ruminants. Further investigations related with specific agronomic studies and forage utilization by small ruminants should he developed in for the further characterisation of this Aralia species