Dietary dose response of Curcuma longa essential oil on the growth and hematological performance of Nile tilapiaRESUMO
O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a utilização de diferentes concentrações do óleo essencial de Curcuma longa como aditivo alimentar sobre os parâmetros hematológicos e zootécnicos de tilápia-do-nilo (Oreochromis niloticus). Foram utilizados 160 peixes, com peso médio de 82,96 ± 1,16g, os quais foram distribuídos aleatoriamente em quatro tratamentos: 0,0 (controle); 0,1%; 0,2% e 0,4% de óleo essencial de C. longa por kg de ração comercial, alimentados três vezes ao dia (8h, 12h e 17h), por 33 dias. Ao final do experimento, foram avaliados os parâmetros zootécnicos: sobrevivência, peso final, produtividade, taxa de crescimento específico, e os parâmetros hematológicos: hematócrito, número de eritrócitos, concentração de hemoglobina, constantes corpusculares, contagem total e diferencial de leucócitos. Os parâmetros zootécnicos e hematológicos não apresentam diferenças significativas entre os tratamentos. Diante desses resultados, conclui-se que a inclusão da Curcuma longa nas concentrações testadas, por um período de 33 dias, não alterou o desempenho e os parâmetros hematológicos das tilápias, não trazendo melhorias para o estado de saúde da tilápia-do-nilo.
Palavras-chave:
hematologia; dieta; peixe; peso final
Keywords:
hematology; diet; fish; final weight
Palavras-chave:
hematologia; dieta; peixe; peso final
Keywords:
hematology; diet; fish; final weight
Palavras-chave:
hematologia; dieta; peixe; peso final
Studies reporting the effect of nutritional additives on fish health have sprung up owing to interest among fish farmers working to improve weight gain and feed efficiency of cultivated fish, as well as prevent and control diseases. Consequently, the use of essential oils in aquatic animal feed has gained prominence based on their growth-promoting (Dawood et al., 2022).
Curcuma longa (C. longa) essential oil is obtained from its rhizome with turmeric and curcumin as its main components (Duong et al., 2022; Pereira et al., 2020). This essential oil, known as turmeric, is extracted from C. longa grown in regions with a tropical climate, and India is one of the largest producers in the world (Duong et al., 2022). Its use in aquaculture occurs mainly as an additive in diets, and its benefits on fish have already been demonstrated with a positive effect on growth performance (Alagawany et al., 2021) and improved cellular immune response and antioxidant capacity (Yonar et al., 2019). The use of C. longa hydrolate also caused changes in the hematological and immunological parameters of juvenile Nile tilapia, maintaining health without compromising performance (Pereira et al., 2020).
Based on the previously reported positive effects of this plant as a food additive, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of different doses of dietary supplementation of Curcuma longa essential oil on the growth performance and hematological parameters of Nile tilapia juvenile (Oreochromis niloticus).
Essential oil was obtained from the rhizome of Curcuma longa and cultivated in the Teaching and Learning Unit, Swine Farming Instituto Federal Catarinense - Campus Araquari. Extraction of the essential oil was carried out by the hydro distillation method using Clevenger-type equipment. Then, the essential oil was kept refrigerated at -18 °C in an amber glass until the experiment was carried out. The major components of the essential oil were ar-turmerone (27.31%), α-tumeron (14.21%) and α-curcumene (12.11%) according to Pereira et al. (2021).
The addition of essential oil to the diet was carried out according to Dairiki et al. (2013). For this, 100 mL of alcohol containing the desired doses of C. longa essential oil were sprayed per kg of commercial feed (GUABI 32% crude protein). Then, the diets were dried for 24 hours and stored at -18 °C until feeding.
All procedures performed in this study were approved by the Ethics Committee on Animal Use (CEUA/IFC 287/2019). A total of 160 Nile Tilapia, with average weight of 82.96 ± 1.16g were reproduced and collected from the Aquaculture Laboratory (IFC) and used for the experiment. The fish were distributed into 16 polyethylene boxes (800 useful L) holding 10 fish per experimental unit. The animals were randomly divided into four groups, and the groups consisted of a commercial diet supplemented with 0.0 (control); 0.1; 0.2; and 0.4%. The concentration of essential oil to the diet was carried out according to Monteiro, et al. (2021). The experiment was conducted in quadruplicate.
The fish were fed at 08:00, 12:00 and 17:00 for 33 days until apparent satiety. Water quality parameters, including dissolved oxygen (6.00 ± 0.20mg/L) and temperature (23.78 ± 0.05°C), were measured daily (YSI PRO20 Oximeter), while alkalinity (44.33 ± 8. 04mg/L), ammonia (0.46 ± 0.30mg/L), nitrite (1.43 ± 0.71mg/L) and nitrate (46.99 ± 18.56mg/L) were measured once a week (Alfakit Photocolorimeter).
At the end of the experiment, five fish per experimental unit were sampled for hematological assessment. The fish were anesthetized with Eugenol (50mg/L), during which approximately 1.5mL of blood were drawn by puncture of the tail vein, with the use of a syringe containing 10% EDTA. The collected blood was used to prepare blood extensions and stained using the May Grunwald/Giemsa/Wright method to count total and differential leukocytes and thrombocytes. Hematocrit was determined by the microhematocrit method, using Dacie’s solution to count the number of erythrocytes through a Neubauer chamber, and hemoglobin concentration was determined by the cyanmethemoglobin method and read using a spectrophotometer. Based on results of hematocrit, erythrocytes counts and hemoglobin concentration, the Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV), Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin (MCH) and Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin Concentration (MCHC) were all calculated. After this, to determinate the zootechnical parameters, all fish were measured to determine survival, final weight, final length, yield and specific growth rate.
The data obtained were subjected to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to assess whether the data distribution was within the normality curve and Levene’s test to verify homoscedasticity. The data obtained that met the prerequisites of normality and homoscedasticity were subjected to ANOVA to observe the occurrence of significant differences among treatments. Significance level was determined as p<0.05 (95%) and used in all assessments.
Zootechnical indexes are an important tool for monitoring the growth of animals and determining whether the diet used has a positive result on performance. Survival values, final weight, productivity and specific growth rate did not differ among treatments (Table 1), despite a numerically it was of higher final average weight at a dose of 0.1% essential oil.
These results corroborate those found by Pereira et al. (2020, 2021), who, in both cases, reported no differences in the growth performance of Nile tilapia fed with 2,5% of C. longa hydrolate. On the other hand, Hassan et al. (2018) fed Nile tilapia for a period of 140 days with diets containing 1% C. longa powder, and obtained improvements in weight gain, specific growth rate, feed conversion and survival when compared to the addition of C. longa with the control group without it.
The use of this essential oil did not negatively impact animal growth during the study period. While no differences were observed between treatment groups, this might be attributed to the relatively short study duration of 33 days. Other studies with Nile Tilapia fed for periods exceeding 60 days have shown increases in growth and hematological parameters. As reported by Alagawany et al. (2021), who tested curcumin in diets of juvenile Nile Tilapia for 84 days, weight gain and immune responses increased at a dose of 50 mg curcumin/kg of diet.
Hematology is a tool used to evaluate health status, including stress and the presence of disease in fish (Alagawany et al., 2021). In this study, hematological parameters did not differ among treatments (Table 2). These results are different from those found by Pereira et al. (2020), who observed improvement in hematological and immunological parameters in juvenile Nile tilapia fed with 2,5% of C. longa hydrolate. In contrast, Basuini et al. (2022) did not observe changes in hematocrit, hemoglobin, number of erythrocytes and leukocytes in Nile tilapia fed with curcumin nanoparticles. However, rainbows trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fed with curcumin showed better results on growth and hemato-immunological responses (Yonar et al., 2019). Leukocytes are considered one of the most important factors of innate immunity and are an indicator of health in aquatic animals, and lymphocytes are the most abundant cells among leukocytes.
Zootechnical parameters of Nile tilapia fed with different doses of Curcuma longa essential oil
Hematological parameters of Nile tilapia fed with different doses of Curcuma longa essential oil.
In the present study, while not showing significant differences, the total lymphocyte counts did was numerically higher values in fish subjected to a dose of 0.1%. Relative to other studies in the literature, the differences found in this study could be attributed to several factors: 1) type of formulation, i.e., essential oil, extract or isolated substance, such as curcumin, and 2) type of incorporation into the diet, dose of bioactive substances and time of administration to the animal (Hassan et al., 2018; Dawood et al., 2022). These factors, together with inconsistent results in the literature, as suggested above, call for more studies, that increase the time of dietary administration and, hence, confirm any improvement in weight gain and health, nothing the trend towards improvement of these parameters.
The content of active substances in plant-based products can vary according to the time of year, depending on seasonal characteristics and geographical location (Duong et al., 2022). This may be one of the reasons for the lack of change in the evaluated parameters.
No significant differences were found in the hematological parameters of the fish, a situation found by other authors testing different levels of essential oils and administration times (Silva et al., 2019). A possible explanation for the essential oils not promoting improvement in these parameters may have been the use of small doses or even differences in the concentration of bioactive compounds since their effect is dose dependent as reported by Harikrishnan et al. (2011). However, these studies were not performed with Curcuma longa therefore, future experiments can be performed by increasing the experimental period to 60 days, since numerically an increase in final weight and number of lymphocytes was observed.
While no significant changes were observed, the inclusion of 0.1% Curcuma longa essential oil as a feed additive for Nile tilapia (O. niloticus) yielded numerically higher values for growth and circulating lymphocyte counts. These findings suggest the need for further research involving longer dietary administration periods to evaluate the potential benefits of this essential oil for Nile tilapia.
REFERENCES
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DAIRIKI, J.K.; MAJOLO, C.; CHAGAS, E.C. et al. Procedimentos para inclusão de óleos essenciais em rações para peixes. Manaus: Embrapa, 2013. Disponível em: https://ainfo.cnptia.embrapa.br/digital/bitstream/item/100643/1/Circ-Tec-42.pdf Acessado em: 4 ago. 2024.
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- YONAR, M.E.; YONAR, S.M.; ÍSPIR, Ü. et al. Effects of curcumin on haematological values, immunity, antioxidant status and resistance of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) against Aeromonas salmonicida subsp. achromogenes. Fish Shellfish Immunol., v.89, p.83-90, 2019.
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
28 Apr 2025 -
Date of issue
May-Jun 2025
History
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Received
19 Feb 2024 -
Accepted
28 Oct 2024
