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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2017
Browse legumes are an important source of fodder for ruminants throughout the tropics. However, the presence of certain anti-nutritive factors may reduce intake and hinder the utilisation of these fodders by livestock and more information relating to their nutritional characteristics is required before they can be utilised effectively. NIR has generally been used as a quantitative tool to predict chemical composition but the use of detailed NIR spectra in qualitative analysis may provide some insight into differences between forages or forages which have been chemically treated. The objective of this work was to use NIR difference spectra to examine two tropical forages legumes, Leucaena and Calliandra, which contain different amounts of condensed tannins and to investigate whether in vitro digestion of the legumes may be enhanced by incubating in the presence of PEG, to counteract some of the anti-nutritive properties associated wim polyphenolics.