LEVELS OF TOTAL AMINO ACIDS, SOLUBLE PROTEINS AND PHENOLIC COMPOUNDS IN FORAGES IN RELATION TO REQUIREMENTS OF RUMINANTS GRAZING IN THE SALT RANGE (PUNJAB), PAKISTAN

Soone Valley (Salt Range) Punjab, Pakistan is a rich habitat of a large number of plant and animal species. Various leguminous and non-leguminous species are indigenous to this Valley which are grazed by a large number of ruminants. Levels of total amino acids, soluble proteins and phenolic compounds were appraised in pods and leaves in the leguminous plant species therein, because metabolites are important constituents of nutrition for ruminants, The data obtained after analysis showed that amino acids and soluble proteins varied from 37.18 to 50.87 and 22.27 to 35.47 mg g(-1) fresh weight in leaves respectively whereas in pods they ranged from 50.22 to 53.98 and 30.67 to 35.48 mg g(-1) fresh weight respectively in all species studied. Phenolic compounds ranged from 0.15 to 0.48 mg g(-1) dry weight in leaves while they varied from 0.11 to 0.32 mg g(-1) dry weight in pods, respectively, in all species under investigation in all pastures. Based on observations recorded for all the attributes, it was concluded that the forage plant species were palatable because all species, contained sufficient amount of amino acids and proteins. Furthermore, the effects of high levels of phenolic found in the leguminous species of the range need to be investigated on the grazing livestock therein particularly in relation to the toxicosis of these compounds on animals.