Nutritional and Functional Components of the By-products of Coix Lacryma-jobi and Their Effects on Growth Performance of Piglets

The nutritional and functional components of by-products of Coix lacryma-jobi were determined, and the effects of the by-products of Coix lacryma-jobi as a new feeding material on the production performance of piglets were evaluated. The methods for the determination of feed composition such as Spectrophotometry and UV-spectrophotometry were applied to determine the nutritional and functional components of the by-products processed from Coix lacryma-jobi. And the by-products were added to the feed of piglets. By recording and measuring the production performance and diarrhea rate of piglets, the effects of the new feeding material on the production performance of piglets were investigated. The results showed that the content of crude fat in Coix lacryma-jobi bran was 72.03 mg·g^-1, which was significantly higher than that in Coix lacryma-jobi, crushed Coix lacryma-jobi, distillers' grains of Coix lacryma-jobi and wheat bran. The content of crude protein in the distillers' grains of Coix lacryma-jobi was 390.83 mg·g^-1, which was significantly higher than that in Coix lacryma-jobi, crushed Coix lacryma-jobi, Coix lacryma-jobi bran and wheat bran. The content of crude polysaccharide, total flavonoids and glycerin trioleate in the crushed Coix lacryma-jobi and Coix lacryma-jobi bran were significantly higher than those in wheat bran. The results of piglets feeding showed that the average daily gain (ADG) of piglets fed with the by-products processed from Coix lacryma-jobi was higher than that of the control group, among which, the ADG of piglets fed with Coix lacryma-jobi bran was the highest (0.384 kg·head^-1·day^-1), which was significantly higher than that of the control group; and the ADG of piglets fed with crushed Coix lacryma-jobi was next (0.366 kg·head^-1·day^-1), which was also significantly higher than that of the control group. The ratio of feed to gain (F/G) of piglets fed with the by-products processed from Coix lacryma-jobi was better than that of the control group, among which the F/G of piglets fed with Coix lacryma-jobi bran was the lowest (1.588), which was 12.84% lower than that of the control group, with significant difference. At the same time, the by-products processed from Coix lacryma-jobi had obvious control effect on the diarrhea of piglets. According to the comparative analysis of growth performance, the effect of controlling diarrhea and economic benefit of piglets, the feeding effect was Coix lacryma-jobi bran>crushed Coix lacryma-jobi>distillers' grains of Coix lacryma-jobi. In conclusion, the by-products processed from Coix lacryma-jobi, especially Coix lacryma-jobi bran, could completely replace the wheat bran in the diet of piglets.