Abstract
This research aimed to evaluate the nutritional divergence of twenty-five genotypes of peel pods of lima bean for ruminant feeding, based on chemical composition as well as fermentation and in situ degradation kinetic characteristics. The chemical constituents were considered discriminatory variables in the first analysis, while the parameters of rumen degradation kinetics and effective degradability (ED 2%h-1) of dry matter were considered in the second analysis. Was adopted the cluster analysis according to the Tocher optimization approach, considering the average Euclidian distance matrix of characters to evaluate the dissimilarity among the genotypes. It was verified the formation of seven heterogeneous groups, highlighting the acid detergent fiber (ADF) and crude protein (CP) as most impactful variables for grouping in the first analysis, contributing with 41.7 and 29.3%, respectively, while in the second analysis, the soluble fraction degradation rate accounted for 38.7 and 28.0%, respectively. The chemical constituents CP and ADF and the kinetic parameters of ruminal degradation soluble fraction (fraction a), degradation rate (c) and potentially degradable fraction (fraction b) of the DM, are efficient to identify the nutritional divergence of pod shells lima bean genotypes based on multivariate analysis. Considering the parameters adopted to form a pool by Tocher´s method, the lima bean genotype 123, present efficient effective degradation and degradation rate compatible with the tropical forage, and better nutritive value and forage potential than pod shells of the other lima bean genotypes.
byproduct; cluster analysis; Phaseolus lunatus