The effects of condensed tannins from Dorycnium rectum on skatole and indole ruminal biogenesis for grazing sheep
Michael H. Tavendale A C , Geoffrey A. Lane B , Nicola M. Schreurs A , Karl Fraser B and Lucy P. Meagher AA Metabolism and Microbial Genomics, AgResearch Ltd, Grasslands Research Centre, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
B Forage Biotechnology, AgResearch Ltd, Grasslands Research Centre, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
C Corresponding author. Email: michael.tavendale@agresearch.co.nz
Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 56(12) 1331-1337 https://doi.org/10.1071/AR04232
Submitted: 8 October 2004 Accepted: 19 August 2005 Published: 15 December 2005
Abstract
Skatole and indole are flavour compounds formed in the rumen, which are key factors in the pastoral flavour of meat and milk products. A selection of indolic compounds has been screened for their potential to form skatole and indole on in vitro fermentation, with rumen inocula collected from New Zealand pasture-fed sheep. Typically, 8% (P < 0.005) of added tryptophan was converted to indole and 54% (P < 0.001) was converted to skatole via indole acetic acid (IAA). The addition to rumen inocula of a condensed tannin (CT) fraction isolated from the forage legume, Dorycnium rectum, reduced the conversion of plant protein to skatole and indole by 75% and specifically inhibited the transformation of IAA to skatole by 85% (P < 0.001). The conversion of tryptophan to indole or IAA was not affected by CTs. The inhibitory effect of CTs on the conversion of tryptophan to skatole was prevented by the addition of polyethylene glycol (PEG) to the rumen inocula prior to the addition of CTs, but not by the addition of PEG subsequent to CTs, demonstrating that interactions between CTs and microbes involved in skatole biosynthesis are not reversible by PEG. This study is the first to demonstrate that isolated CTs have an inhibitory effect on the conversion of protein to skatole and indole by rumen microbes, and that CTs specifically inhibit the transformation of IAA to skatole by rumen microbes.
Additional keywords: tryptophan, 3-methyl indole, indole acetic acid, rumen.
Acknowledgments
We thank the New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology for financial support through research contract C10X0201 ‘Foods that Delight’, and S. Sivakumaran for providing the Dorycnium rectum condensed tannin fraction.
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