Science - Extracting sugar, protein and fiber from grass

Author: Best.Korea

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Most people know that grass does contain sugar, protein and fiber, but grass is not digestible by humans.

If you ate grass, it wouldnt give you much calories. Also, grass is even impossible to eat for humans, because its hard to chew.

However, there seems to be a way to extract these nutrients from grass.

On one site, I found information that people who have horses usually place grass in water to reduce sugar content of grass.

Sugar is water soluble, so by placing grass in water for 1 hour, about 30% to 40% of sugar is extracted from grass to water, thus water then contains such sugar. Warmer water extracts sugar faster.

So 6 kilograms of grass, assuming 10% sugar content of grass, would yield 200 grams of sugar within an hour.

Same works with fiber. Fiber which is soluble in grass is extracted into water. Soluble fiber is also a source of calories.

Same with soluble protein.

Thus, it is very possible to extract nutrients from grass by simply placing grass in water for an hour and maybe also crushing it to speed up the process.

Such water would then contain calories which then humans would be able to digest.

However, one must be warned of risks, because grass can be contaminated or even contain poisonous plants.

Still, this particular method seems promising, depending on how much sugar, fiber and protein can be extracted into water.

Of course, higher ratio of grass to water would yield a more concentrated product.
JoeBob
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how do you come up with this stuff
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@JoeBob
Plenty of free time, I guess.
Best.Korea
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I tried soaking 500 grams of grass in about 2 liters of water for about 2 hours, also crushing it a bit.

The resulting liquid was brown, slightly dark color.

The taste is not that enjoyable, but scientifically speaking, it should contain energy. Whats unclear is how much energy, because finding information about how much sugar, protein and fiber is extracted is really difficult.
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@Best.Korea
I tried soaking 500 grams of grass in about 2 liters of water for about 2 hours, also crushing it a bit.

The resulting liquid was brown, slightly dark color.

The taste is not that enjoyable, but scientifically speaking, it should contain energy. Whats unclear is how much energy, because finding information about how much sugar, protein and fiber is extracted is really difficult.


Although regular grass provides nutrition and fiber to livestock and other animals, the high cellulose content is difficult for digestion by humans and, as a result, provides very few nutrients. A healthy food choice consists of a food item that contains a high level of nutrients, vitamins and minerals in comparison to calories per serving. Regular grass is not helpful in meeting daily human nutritional requirements.