Silicon (Si) is absorbed by plants and accumulated in shoot, what can affect nutritional quality of forages. The objective of this work was to evaluate the cell wall composition, estimated by FDA, FDN and lignin, and in vitro digestibility of rice shoots cultivated in nutritious solution with and without Si. There were differences in organic matter and ash contents, and there were no differences in total wall, cellulose and lignin. There were more minerals associated with cell wall of rice straw with Si, which presented less hemi-cellulose deposition in this material. Silicon did not affect in vitro digestibility of rice straw.
silica; cellulose; hemi-cellulose; lignin
