Effect of Hydroquinone on Ruminal Urease in the Sheep and its Inhibition Kinetics in vitro

Effect of hydroquinone (HQ) on rumen urease activity was studied. Hydroquinone at concentrations of 0.01 ppm, 0.1 ppm, 1 ppm, and 10 ppm inhibited urease activity of intact rumen microbes in vitro by 25%, 34%, 55% and 64% respectively. In the presence of low concentrations of $\beta$-mercaptoethanol, rumen urease could be solubilized and partially purified. The Km for the enzyme was $2{\times}10^{-3}$ M with Vmax of $319.4{\mu}moles/mg$ min. The kinetics of inhibition with partially purified rumen urease was investigated. The result showed that the inhibitory effect was not eliminated by increasing urea concentrations indicating a noncompetitive effect in nature with an inhibition constant $1.2{\times}10^{-5}$ M. Hydroquinone at the concentration of 10 ppm produced 64% urease inhibition, did not affect ruminal total dehydrogenase and proteolytic enzyme (p>0.05), but increased cellulase activity by 28% (p<0.05) in vitro. These results indicated that hydroquinone was a effective inhibitor of rumen urease and could effectively delay urea hydrolysis without a negative effect. The inhibitor appeared to offer a potential to improve nitrogen utilization by ruminants fed diets containing urea.