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Cellulose is not consumed by human beings but animals like goats can eat it?How can you explain it?

Cellulose is not consumed by human beings but animals like goats can eat it?How can you explain it?

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2 Answers

anurag bhattacharjee
42 Points
11 years ago
Basically it is a question of Human related Zoology. WE or "humans" cannot consume cellulose as we cannot easily digest it with our typical stomach.Animals like cow,goat, buffalo,Hippopotamus and other similar animals can easily digest cellulose which they obtain from raw grass,shoots etc as because they has 2-3 stomach(rumen) and especially designed long food pipe for digesting cellulose. Hope you understand the reason. please approve if you like.
Dhiraj Chopra
29 Points
11 years ago

SIMPLE ANSWER

The cellose present in grass is not broken out in our body as we sont have the required enzymes but hervivores like cow, horse etc have proper enzymes present in their stomach and moreover some special bacteria present in their stomach aids this process

COMPACT ANSWER

Actually grass or in particular the cellulose it is made up of is basically a polymer of glucose and so if could be released would be perfectly usable by humans. However, it is the way in which each of the glucose molecules are linked together that make it resistant to digestion by humans. Humans do not produce Beta-galactosidase, only the alpha form. Consequently, humans are unable to hydrolyse the Beta-glycosidic linkage of the glucose polymer cellulose. Ruminants and other herbivores utilise the mutualistic form of symbiosis, whereby the gut flora and fauna of these animals that can synthesise Beta-galactosideses digest the cellulose releasing glucose for uptake by both bugs and host.

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