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Some animals, particularly ruminants and termites, can digest cellulose with the help of symbiotic micro-organisms that live in their guts, such as Trichonympha. In human nutrition, cellulose is a non-digestible constituent of insoluble dietary fiber, acting as a hydrophilic bulking agent for feces and potentially aiding in defecation.
However, their ability to extract energy from cellulose digestion is less efficient than in ruminants. [2] Herbivores digest cellulose by microbial fermentation. Monogastric herbivores which can digest cellulose nearly as well as ruminants are called hindgut fermenters, while ruminants are called foregut fermenters. [3]
Cellulose is a polymer made with repeated glucose units bonded together by beta-linkages. Humans and many animals lack an enzyme to break the beta-linkages, so they do not digest cellulose. Certain animals, such as termites can digest cellulose, because bacteria possessing the enzyme are present in their gut. Cellulose is insoluble in water.
Humans lack the cellulases to digest the carbohydrate cellulose which is a beta-linked glucose polymer. Some of the preceding endogenous enzymes have pharmaceutical counterparts (pancreatic enzymes) that are administered to people with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency.
Dietary fiber is defined to be plant components that are not broken down by human digestive enzymes. [1] In the late 20th century, only lignin and some polysaccharides were known to satisfy this definition, but in the early 21st century, resistant starch and oligosaccharides were included as dietary fiber components.
Ruminants can extract food energy from the respiration of cellulose because of bacteria in their rumens that decompose it into digestible carbohydrates. Other minor components of the human diet that contribute to its energy content are organic acids such as citric and tartaric , and polyols such as glycerol , xylitol , inositol , and sorbitol .
Cellulose powder is a food additive that naturally occurs in plants and helps give them structure. ... shredded cheese is an organic structural compound called cellulose (sometimes labeled as ...
While foregut fermentation is generally considered more efficient, and monogastric animals cannot digest cellulose as efficiently as ruminants, [5] hindgut fermentation allows animals to consume small amounts of low-quality forage all day long and thus survive in conditions where ruminants might not be able to obtain nutrition adequate for their needs.