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Sal (Shorea robusta) seeds and oil meal

Datasheet

Description
Click on the "Nutritional aspects" tab for recommendations for ruminants, pigs, poultry, rabbits, horses, fish and crustaceans
Common names 

Sal, sal tree, sakhua, shala tree [English]; sal, sâla, dammar de l'Inde [French]; salboom [Dutch]; Salbaum [German]; sala [Vietnamese]; শাল [Bengali]; 娑羅樹 [Chinese]; शाल, साखू [Hindi]; サラソウジュ [Japanese]; കൈമരുത് [Malayalam]; සල් [Sinhala]; Сал [Russian]; குங்கிலியம் [Tamil]; สาละ [Thai]

Related feed(s) 
Description 

The sal tree (Shorea robusta C. F. Gaertn.) is a hardwood timber tree, up to 30-35 m tall. The crown is spreading and spherical. Leaves are 20 cm long, simple, shiny and glabrous, delicate green, broadly oval at the base. Fruits are 1-1.5 cm large and ovoid (Orwa et al., 2009).

Sal seeds have various uses. They may be ground into a flour to make bread. The kernels contain 14-20% oil ("sal butter") which is used for cooking, as a cocoa butter replacer for illumination, and for industrial purposes (Appanah et al., 1998). The resulting sal seed cake is rich in starch (50%) and used in canning (Orwa et al., 2009). The leaves and sal seed cake are also used as feedstuffs.

Distribution 

The sal tree is native to India, Myanmar and Nepal. It occurs in deciduous dry and moist forests and in evergreen moist forests. It is sensitive to frost and waterlogging. It flourishes best in deep, sandy, moist soils (Orwa et al., 2009).

Environmental impact 

As it is resistant to fire, Shorea robusta is often a dominant tree in Indian forests. For artificial regeneration it can be combined with upland rice, maize, sesame and mustard (Orwa et al., 2009).

Nutritional aspects
Nutritional attributes 

Sal seed cake has a low protein and fat content and its usefulness as feedstuff has been questioned (Negi, 1982).

Potential constraints 

The seeds and their by-products contain high levels of tannins that limit their use for monogastrics.

Ruminants 

Leaves

Sal tree leaves are used as a roughage of medium to poor quality (Orwa et al., 2009).

Seeds and oil cake

Decorticated sal seeds included at 40% in the diet of cattle, to replace rice bran, were not digestible (Dash et al., 1972). Salseed cake has been successfully used in cattle. Up to 20% has been recommended (Göhl, 1982) and it was possible to include it up to 30% in diets for growing heifers, with or without 2% urea (Sonwane et al., 1974 cited by Devendra, 1985)

In growing calves, deoiled sal seed meal was also fed at up to 30% without affecting animal health, intake and performance (Garg et al., 1984).

Deoiled sal seed meal may also replace maize in dairy cows at up to 20% of the diet without affecting the animal performances and milk yield (Rajagopal et al., 1983).

However, sal seed cake has a low protein content, and the presence of tannins adversely affects the utilization of other feed proteins. Attempts to remove tannins from sal seed meal are neither effective nor practicable (Negi, 1982). It has thus been proposed to use sal seed cake for the protein-binding properties of its tannins to improve feed utilization of forages containing highly degradable protein (Shalini Trivedi et al., 2007).

Pigs 

Up to 40% sal seed cake in pig diets, replacing maize, had no significant effect on pig performance (Pathak et al., 1973 cited by Devendra, 1985).

Poultry 

Sal seed cake has negative effects in poultry, due to its high tannin content. More than 50 g sal seed meal/kg in the diet of chicks resulted in poor growth and feed conversion (Zombade et al., 1979). Hens and broilers fed on 50% seed cake diets showed depressed nutrient digestibility and lower pancreatic and intestinal enzyme activity. Treating sal seed meal to reduce its tannin content improved digestibility and enzyme activity. However, hens fed sal seed meal produced eggs with discoloured, greenish-yellow eggs (Mahmood et al., 2006).

Fish 

Sal seed cake was included in rohu (Labeo rohita) diets up to 20% and 30% in the raw and fermented states respectively. Fermented sal seed cake protein supplemented with lysine and methionine-cystine could replace up to 50% of fish meal protein (Mukhopadhyay et al., 1996; Mukhopadhyay et al., 1999).

Other species 

In India, sal leaves were used to feed the tasar silkworm (Antheraea mylitta) (Jolly et al., 1976).

Nutritional tables
Tables of chemical composition and nutritional value 

Avg: average or predicted value; SD: standard deviation; Min: minimum value; Max: maximum value; Nb: number of values (samples) used

Main analysis Unit Avg SD Min Max Nb
Crude protein % DM 8.0 1
Crude fibre % DM 5.2 1
Ether extract % DM 16.7 1
Ash % DM 2.4 1
Gross energy MJ/kg DM 21.2 *
 
Pig nutritive values Unit Avg SD Min Max Nb
Energy digestibility, growing pig % 81.9 *
DE growing pig MJ/kg DM 17.4 *

The asterisk * indicates that the average value was obtained by an equation.

References

Tripathi, 1975

Last updated on 24/10/2012 00:43:20

Main analysis Unit Avg SD Min Max Nb
Dry matter % as fed 90.2 2.8 88.2 94.4 4
Crude protein % DM 10.2 1.6 8.0 14.0 10
Crude fibre % DM 2.4 0.2 2.0 2.8 7
NDF % DM 23.1 10.4 14.5 38.0 4
ADF % DM 12.1 9.8 4.9 26.6 4
Lignin % DM 3.0 2.3 0.9 5.5 3
Ether extract % DM 1.4 0.9 0.8 3.3 7
Ash % DM 4.1 1.1 3.2 6.7 8
Starch (polarimetry) % DM 46.0 1
Gross energy MJ/kg DM 17.8 1
 
Minerals Unit Avg SD Min Max Nb
Calcium g/kg DM 2.0 0.4 1.6 2.6 4
Phosphorus g/kg DM 1.7 0.5 1.2 2.2 3
Magnesium g/kg DM 3.5 1
Manganese mg/kg DM 70 1
Zinc mg/kg DM 29 1
Copper mg/kg DM 18 1
 
Secondary metabolites Unit Avg SD Min Max Nb
Tannins (eq. tannic acid) g/kg DM 67.3 31.3 17.4 101.4 5
Tannins, condensed (eq. catechin) g/kg DM 0.6 1
 
Pig nutritive values Unit Avg SD Min Max Nb
Energy digestibility, growing pig % 86.4 *
DE growing pig MJ/kg DM 15.4 *
NE growing pig MJ/kg DM 11.3 *

The asterisk * indicates that the average value was obtained by an equation.

References

AFZ, 2011; Barman et al., 2006; Kaduskar et al., 1981; Negi, 1982; Shukla et al., 1973; Waters et al., 1992

Last updated on 24/10/2012 00:43:20

Main analysis Unit Avg SD Min Max Nb
Crude protein % DM 8.4 0.9 7.8 9.5 3
Crude fibre % DM 2.2 0.7 1.6 3.0 3
Ether extract % DM 9.6 1.1 8.6 10.7 3
Ash % DM 3.3 0.2 3.1 3.4 3
Starch (polarimetry) % DM 30.1 1
Gross energy MJ/kg DM 19.4 *
 
Pig nutritive values Unit Avg SD Min Max Nb
Energy digestibility, growing pig % 86.7 *
DE growing pig MJ/kg DM 16.8 *
NE growing pig MJ/kg DM 12.6 *

The asterisk * indicates that the average value was obtained by an equation.

References

Negi, 1982

Last updated on 24/10/2012 00:43:20

Main analysis Unit Avg SD Min Max Nb
Crude protein % DM 11.3 10.1 12.4 2
Crude fibre % DM 27.4 1
Ether extract % DM 3.2 1
Ash % DM 3.9 1
Gross energy MJ/kg DM 19.1 *
 
Minerals Unit Avg SD Min Max Nb
Calcium g/kg DM 7.7 1
Phosphorus g/kg DM 1.2 1
 
Ruminant nutritive values Unit Avg SD Min Max Nb
ME ruminants (FAO, 1982) MJ/kg DM 6.4 1
Nitrogen digestibility, ruminants % 11.0 1

The asterisk * indicates that the average value was obtained by an equation.

References

Makkar et al., 1998; Salo, 1965; Sen, 1938

Last updated on 24/10/2012 00:43:20

References
References 
Datasheet citation 

Heuzé V., Tran G., 2015. Sal (Shorea robusta) seeds and oil meal. Feedipedia, a programme by INRAE, CIRAD, AFZ and FAO. https://feedipedia.org/node/25 Last updated on October 6, 2015, 11:42

English correction by Tim Smith (Animal Science consultant) and Hélène Thiollet (AFZ)