Phytogenic feed additives.

1. PLANT-BASED GROWTH
PROMOTERS IN
AQUACULTURE
Presented by: Sadiya Farooq.
Faculty of Fisheries.
SKUAST-KASHMIR

2. CONTENTS
 INTRODUCTION.
 WHY PLANT-BASED GROWTH
PROMOTERS?
 PHYTOCHEMICALS (ESSENTIAL OILS,
FLAVINOIDS, ALKALOIDS,
TRITERPENOIDS, PHYTOANDROGENS).
 MODE OF ACTION.
 CONCLUSION.
 REFERENCES.

3. INTRODUCTION
 Phytogenic feed additives —consisting of
herbs, spices, extracts or other plant-parts,
leaves (e.g. extract of Moringa oleifera) , roots,
tubers (e.g. Garlic, Allium sativum; Ginger,
Zingiber officinale) or plant derived
compounds have gained considerable
attention as a tool to achieve improved growth
performance.

4. Continued...
 The active ingredients (e.g. phenols and
flavonoids) can exert multiple effects in animals,
including improvement of feed conversion ratio
(FCR), digestibility, growth rate, reduction of
nitrogen excretion and improvement of the gut
flora and health status. In the case of nutrient
sparing or fish meal replacement, phytogenics can
stimulate the digestive secretions, increase villi
length and density and increase mucous
production through an increase in the number of
globlet cells. As a result, phytogenics can improve
feed digestibility, especially for proteins and amino
acids.

5. WHY PLANT-BASED GROWTH
PROMOTERS?
 Increasing demand, an unstable supply and the
high price of fishmeal made it necessary to
evaluate alternative protein sources of plant origin
in fish diets as partial or total replacement for
fishmeal (Gatlin et al. 2007).
 There is a changing perception regarding the
potential of various plant secondary metabolites
and various processing techniques attempted to
eliminate the anti-metabolic factors and toxic
principles of plant protein sources in fish feed,
have resulted in partial success.

6. Phytochemicals:
Essential Oils Flavonoids
Alkaloids Triterpenoids
Phytoestrogens

7. Essential oils.
 Concentrated hydrophobic liquid compounds,
Contain a variety of volatile molecules such as
terpenes and terpenoids, phenol-derived aromatic
components and aliphatic components, and are
used as antimicrobial, analgestic, sedative, anti-
inflammatory, spasmolytic and locally anaesthetic
remedies.
 A commercial product with oregano essential oil
extracted from Origanum heracleoticum,
containing monoterpenoid phenolic compounds
carvacrol and thymol as major phytochemicals,
was shown to act as a growth promoter in channel
catfish, Ictalurus punctatus (Zheng et al. 2009)

8. Flavonoids.
 Diphenylpropanes, secondary metabolites in
plants.
 Potent antioxidants, capable of scavenging
hydroxyl radicals, superoxide anions and lipid
peroxy radicals, and have been reported as
having antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti
allergic, anti-mutagenic, anti-viral, anti-
neoplastic, anti-thrombotic and vasodilatory
actions (Yao et al. 2004; Chakraborty & Hancz
2011).

9. Continued...
 The dietary administration of green tea,
Camellia sinensis, leaves that contain
flavonoid catechins such as epicatechin,
epicatechin gallate, epigallocatechin and
epigallocatechin gallate as bioactive principles,
at a concentration of 0.5 g/kg diet for 12 weeks
enhanced the growth, FCR and protein
content of Nile tilapia (Abdel-Tawwab et al.
2010).

10. Alkaloids.
 Heterocyclic organic compounds of plant origin.
 Isoquinoline alkaloids represent one of the largest
and most interesting groups of plant secondary
metabolites as potential alternative growth
promoters (Faddejeva & Belyaeva 1997).
 Red tilapia, O. niloticus, fed diets containing a
commercial product with the isoquinoline alkaloid
sanguinarine, at inclusion levels of 25, 50, 75 and
100 mg/kg for 60 days, showed significant (P <
0.05) elevations in the mean daily feed intake,
weight gain, SGR and total leukocyte levels
(Rawling et al. 2009).

11. Triterpenoids.
 Compounds present in a diverse range of
plants used in traditional medicine and is
known to have anti-tumoral properties (Reyes-
Zurita et al. 2009).
 Maslinic acid (2-a,3-b-dihydroxiolean-12-en-
28-oic acid), a triterpenoid compound present
in the fruit and leaves of Olea europaea, was
found to act as a growth factor when added to
a standard trout diet (Fernandez-Navarro et al.
2008).

12. Phytoandrogens.
 Some substances produced in plants may
have functional effects similar to testosterone
in animals and are collectively known as
phytoandrogens (Turan & Akyurt 2005a).
 Diosgenin [(25R)-5-spirosten-3b-ol], a steroid
sapogenin constituent of fenugreek seeds;
daidzein, an isoflavone present in soy; and
triterpenoids isolated from the gutta percha
tree have been demonstrated to act as
phytoandrogens (Raju et al. 2004; Chen &
Chang 2007; Ong & Tan 2007)

13. Continued...
 Significantly higher (P < 0.05) weight gain,
better FCR and PER, and protein and lipid
contents were observed in C. gariepinus fed
on feeds containing a phytoandrogen,
androstenedione (occurring naturally in pollens
from certain pine trees and European
cactuses) at a concentration of 50 mg/kgdiet
for 120 days (Turan & Akyurt 2005a).

14. Plants with multibioactive
compounds.
 Plants containing numerous bioactive
phytoconstituents in finfish feed to promote
growth.
 Dietary supplementation of different parts of
the plants and its extract based on sources
such as aqueous, methanol, ethanol, acetone
and hexane has been applied to induce growth
promotion in fish.

15. Continued...
 Kelp grouper, Epinephelus bruneus, fed a diet
supplemented with ethanol extract of the
mushroom Phellinus linteus for 30 days showed a
significantly higher (P < 0.05) percentage weight
gain and feed efficiency compared with fish fed
the control diet without mushroom extract
(Harikrishnan et al. 2011b).
 The edible mushroom contains a large number of
biologically active compounds such as
polysaccharides and triterpenes that may exhibit
immunomodulating properties and act as a
prebiotic.

16. MODE OF ACTION:
 The mode of action of most phytogenics is still not
fully elucidated (Upadhaya & Kim 2017), however,
these plant-based products possess the following
properties: antioxidant, antimicrobial,
anticarcinogenic, analgesic, insecticidal,
antiparasitic, growth promoters, appetite
enhancement, stimulant of bile secretion and
digestive enzyme activity (Asimi & Sahu 2013;
Sutili et al 2018).

17. MODE OF ACTION
Anti-oxidant
activity
Prebiotic-
like effects
Absorption
&
Assimilation
Digestion
Immune
action

18. MODE OF ACTION
(ANTI-OXIDANT ACTIVITY)
 These modulate cellular responses to various
stimuli interacting with reactive oxygen-nitrogen
species (RONS)-mediated intracellular signalling
either by scavenging reactive oxygen species and
suppressing their generation or by protecting
antioxidant defences and up-regulating
intracellular signalling resulting in the antioxidant
cellular response.
 This mechanism of two-fold antioxidant activity
may also be assumed for health benefit in fish and
leading to a growth increase.

19. MODE OF ACTION
(IMMUNE ACTION)
 Medicinal herbs containing diverse groups of
phytochemicals such as phenolics, flavonoids,
alkaloids, polysaccharides, volatile oils and
proteoglycans have been reported to act as
antimicrobial agents and to stimulate both specific
and non-specific immunity in fish by modulating
the functions of the immune cells, including T-
cells, B-cells, NK-cells and macrophages,
increasing cytokine production and immune
related gene expression, and increasing antibody
production (Citarasu 2010; Chakraborty & Hancz
2011; Pandey et al. 2012). Such
immunostimulating properties of herbs may lead
to better health condition, disease resistance and
ultimately faster growth in fish.

20. MODE OF ACTION
(DIGESTION)
 Extracts from herbs and spices (e.g., barks, peels and
seeds) are reported to improve animal performance
by stimulating action on digestive secretions or by
having a direct anti-bacterial effect on gut as observed
in animals fed with diets containing capsaicin and
piperine from pepper or with cinnamaldehyde from
cinnamon bark (Citarasu 2010).
 These bioactive substances are able to stimulate
salivation through amylase production, thus resulting
in improved digestibility and availability of nutrients
from feedstuff (Chesson 1987). There is a reduction in
the amount of undigested materials that pass through
the large intestine; hence, limiting the amount of
substrate available for the proliferation of pathogenic
bacteria (Citarasu 2010).

21. MODE OF ACTION
(ABSORPTION & ASSIMILATION)
 Phytochemicals act as substrates for biochemical
reactions, absorbants/sequestrants that bind to
and eliminate undesirable constituents in the
intestine, and compounds that enhance the
absorption and/or stability of essential nutrients
(Holst & Williamson 2008; Virgili & Marino 2008).
 They also have been reported to promote DNA,
RNA and protein synthesis, stimulate GH and
IGF-I production and function and other anabolic
effects in fish, resulting in growth increase (Lee et
al. 2005; Turan & Akyurt 2005; Cek et al. 2007;
Fernandez-Navarro et al. 2008; Goda 2008;
Citarasu 2010).

22. MODE OF ACTION
(PREBIOTIC-LIKE EFFECTS)
 Phytochemicals and their metabolic products may
provide health benefits as selective growth factors
and fermentation substrates for beneficial
gastrointestinal bacteria, while acting as selective
inhibitors of deleterious intestinal bacteria, thereby
exerting Phytochemicals in fish culture prebiotic-
like effects in fish (Zheng et al. 2009; Harikrishnan
et al. 2011).
 Thus, the cultured fish are conferred with
enhanced growth performance, feed efficiency
and disease resistance.

23. CONCLUSION
 Plant-based growth promoters minimize
stress, improve immunity, prevent various
infections and thus, promote growth in fishes
that will help to produce healthy fishes for
human consumption.
 Multifaceted and coordinated research efforts
need to be oriented in every respect to further
increase the use of plant-based growth
promoters in fish culture. Such efforts will
result in increasing the sustainability of fish
culture.

24. REFERENCES:
 GV Pavan Kumar , N Mehar Nikitha, Md. Husnara
Begum, V Chandra Sekhar. Supplementation of
materials in fish feed for efficient growth performance
and body indices: An extensive review on the role of
functional feed additives in tilapia nutrition,
International Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic
Research; October 2018.
 Madhuri S., Y.P. Sahni and Govind Pandey. Herbal
feed supplements as drugs and growth promoter to
fishes, international research journal of pharmacy;
2012.
 Chakraborty, Suman & Horn, Peter & Hancz, Csaba.
(2013). Application of phytochemicals as growth-
promoters and endocrine modulators in fish culture.

25. THANKYOU!