Effects of nitrogen level on condensed tannins and activity of related enzyme in Chamaecrasta nictitans

Condensed tannins (CT) affect the quality of the forage greatly. Proper amount of CT could improve the utilization rate and the nutritional quality for the forage. Content of the CT was examined with vanillic aldehyde, and the Dihydroflavonol 4Reductase (DFR) activity was determined with realtime monitor method after fertilizing different level of nitrogen on legume forage, Chamaecrasta nictitans. The condensed tannins decreased as nitrogen level increased, from 14.78% to 1.14% in leaves, from 4.62% to 0.98% in stems. Change of DFR activity is similar to CT content. This implied that increase nitrogen fertilizer would decrease CT content, which is helpful to the quality of the forage.