This experiment aimed to evaluate the decrease of the fiber fraction of some agricultural and
plantation residues after being treated with Fiber Cracking Technology (FCT) and urea. The residues
included rice straw, oil palm frond (OPF), oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB), cocoa pod and coffee
husk. They were added with 5% urea and incubated in FCT at temperature 135o
C and pressure 2.3
atm for 2.5 h. The experimental treatments were arranged as a factorial design 5 × 2, in which the first
factor was various agricultural and plantation residues (rice straw, OPF, OPEFB, cocoa pod and coffee
husk) and the second factor was FCT application (untreated and treated with FCT + 5% urea), performed in 4 replicates. All treatments were subjected to Van Soest analysis and in vitro digestibility
test. The decrease of fiber fraction was confirmed with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-Ray
Diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) methods. Results showed that
FCT + 5% urea treatment decreased NDF, ADF, cellulose and lignin contents of all samples (P