NUTRITIONAL AND MICROBIAL ANALYSIS OF CORN HUSK FOR ANIMAL FEED

ABSTRACTS The nutritional properties and microbial qualities of corn husk for animal feed were analyzed in this work. The proximate analysis result of corn husk extract per (mg/100g) showed carbohydrate has 56.60%, fat 17.44% moisture 10.33%, protein 7.87%, ash 4.09% and fibre 3.67% respectively. The results of qualitative and quantitative phytochemical analysis of corn husk revealed the presence of Phenol with 0.775, Tannin 0.5653, Alkaloids 0.664, flavonoid 4.345. Steroid 0.345and glycoside 5.455. The mineral content per (mg/100g) are sodium 6.67%, potassium 4.63%, calcium 2.89%, magnesium 7.99%, iron 8.04% and zinc 9.02%. Corn husk vitamin content per (mg/100g) were Vitamin A with 0.76, Vitamin B1 0.067, Vitamin B2 0.1243, Vitamin B6 0.98, Vitamin C 0.76 and Vitamin B12 0.554. The results obtained from this work has confirmed that corn husk contains appreciable nutritional properties. The total viable count of bacterial isolate in this work was 91cfu/g. In this study a total of four (4) microorganisms were isolated. The bacterial organism identified were Staphylococcus spp and Escherichia coli. The fungal pathogen identified were Fusarium and Aspergillus spp. The bacterial percentage distribution showed Escherichia coli has the highest percentage distribution of 54(59%) and Staphylococcus spp 37(41%) respectively. The microorganism recorded in this work could be due to postharvest practices and poor storage conditions. Hence, treatment of corn husk is important to help eliminate some of these pathogens.