A PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENT ON THE DIGESTION OF
                                 FATS BY BULLOCKS

                                                 BY

                                     P. A. SESHAN, B.A.,

                   (From the Animal Nutrition Section, Bangalore.)

                         (Received for publication on 6th June 1932.)

The work being of a preliminary nature it is not proposed to review the
subject at this stage. Simple experiments have been carried out to study the
nature of the fat ingested and the corresponding fat excreted. The samples were
obtained in the course of digestion trials with bullocks. In the present paper
results obtained with two rations have been studied, namely, ragi straw and
groundnut cake and mature hay and groundnut cake.

The digestion of the total ether extractives is given in Table I. The figures
show that the digestibility of the insoluble fatty acids is considerable, while the
digestibility of the unsaponifiable matter is low. With regard to the digestibility
of the unsaponifiable matter, the figures given do not represent the true diges-
tibility but only the apparent digestibility. That is to say, some of the unsaponi-
fiable matter found in the faeces is derived from the body and is not an undigested
fraction of the ingested substance. This explains the negative values when the
amount ingested is low. The figures do show, however, the balance of unsaponi-
fiable matter.

With regard to the character of the insoluble fatty acids, the iodine value
may be taken as the first criterion.

In Table II, the iodine values of the ingested and. digested insoluble fatty acids
are shown. The statement indicates very clearly that the unsaturated acids are
more completely digested than the saturated fatty acids.

Using the usual convention for expressing the insoluble fatty acids as stearic
and oleic according to the iodine value obtained, the results contained in Table II
may be restated as in Table III.

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