The digestibility of the carbohydrate complex of barley, wheat and maize by adult fowls

Abstract

1. The digestibility of the carbohydrates in barley, wheat and maize has been determined, using both conventional methods and individual methods for sugar, starch, pentosan, cellulose and lignin.2. Sugar and starch were completely digested; cellulose and lignin were indigestible and the pentosan was about one-third digested.3. Digestible pentosan accounted for about 3% of the total digestible carbohydrate.4. The ratios of the available carbohydrate, i.e. the total of sugar plus starch expressed as starch, was almost exactly the same as that of the digestible carbohydrate and could be used as a measure of the relative amounts of digestible carbohydrate in the foods.