Zingiber officinale and Glycyrrhiza glabra , individually or in combination, reduce heavy metal accumulation and improve growth performance and immune status in Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus

Abstract

This study evaluated the impact of dietary ginger and liquorice supplementation on growth performance, physiological and histopathological profiles and heavy metal accumulation in Nile tilapia fingerlings. Fish (n = 1,800, 17.5 ± 0.11 g BW) were randomly distributed into four treatment groups in triplicates and received no supplementation (control group), 5 ml aqueous ginger extract/kg feed (ginger group), 4 ml aqueous liquorice extract/kg feed (liquorice group) or 2.5 ml ginger plus 2 ml liquorice aqueous extracts/kg feed (mix group). The ginger‐liquorice mix supply improved the growth performance and feed efficiency (p < .05), increased the haematocrit and haemoglobin (p < .05), leucocytes (p = .108), neutrophils (p = .054), serum total protein (p < .05), albumin (p = .011) and globulin (p = .094) but decreased (p < .05) the blood urea nitrogen and creatinine than feeding liquorice or ginger lonely compared to the control. Heavy metal loads in pond water induced lamellar telangiectasis of gills and necrosis with sloughing of intestinal villi tips. These detrimental effects were alleviated, and the intestinal villus length (p = .041) and crypt depth (p = .069) were increased with liquorice supply. In all treatment groups, heavy metal contents in fish flesh were lower compared to the control. Thus, using ginger and/or liquorice aqueous extracts can decrease heavy metal accumulation in the fish flesh and exert positive effects on growth performance, metabolic profile and the intestinal and gill morphology of Nile tilapia.

Dietary licorice ( Glycyrrhiza glabra ) improves growth, lipid metabolism, antioxidant and immune responses, and resistance to crowding stress in common carp, Cyprinus carpio

“…Also, total protein level in serum was significantly higher in 20 and 30 g/kg licorice groups compared with the control. Similarly, there was a significant increase in serum proteins in Nile tilapia fed diets containing licorice compared with the control (Mohammed et al, 2020). Licorice (G. glabra) has been used as an immunostimulant in fish (Elabd et al, 2016(Elabd et al, , 2017Mohammed et al, 2020).…”

“…Similarly, there was a significant increase in serum proteins in Nile tilapia fed diets containing licorice compared with the control (Mohammed et al, 2020). Licorice (G. glabra) has been used as an immunostimulant in fish (Elabd et al, 2016(Elabd et al, , 2017Mohammed et al, 2020). The elevated serum proteins and ACH50 activity may be associated with the health of the liver (the site for many protein syntheses), and dietary licorice was reported to be hepatoprotective in fish (Elabd et al, 2016(Elabd et al, , 2017Yin et al, 2011).…”

“…Many studies have focused on the application of herbal products to mitigate stress responses, stimulate the innate and adaptive immune functions, and prevent and control diseases in farmed fish (Chakraborty & Hancz, 2011; Galina et al., 2009; Harikrishnan et al., 2011). Licorice ( Glycyrrhiza glabra ) has been used as an immunostimulant in fish (Elabd, Wang, Shaheen, Yao, & Abbass, 2016, 2017; Mohammed et al., 2020). However, there is little information about the immunoregulative effects of dietary G. glabra on common carp.…”

“…In aquaculture, immunostimulating (Elabd et al, 2016;Mohammed et al, 2020), hepatoprotective and antioxidant (Elabd et al, 2017;Yin et al, 2011), and growth-promoting (Kumar et al, 2007;Mohammed et al, 2020) effects of dietary licorice have been reported in fish. Elabd et al (2017) showed that G. glabra and Astragalus membranaceus dietary supplements significantly enhanced antioxidant status in yellow perch (Perca flavescens) under physical stresses.…”

The Effect of some Dietary Medicinal Herbal Extracts on Growth Performance and Economic Efficiency of Nile Tilapia

“…In addition, the enhancement of body weight gain is relates the active materials found in plant extracts, resulting in increased feed utilization efficiency, resulting in increased growth. Ginger (Zingiber officinale) and licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) are two herbal extracts with promising properties for aquaculture as functional feed (Shakya, 2015;Smith et al, 2018;Tiwari et al, 2018 andMohammed et al, 2020). Improved fish immunity and increased growth rates by adding ginger to their diets, proven by many researchers, including tilapia (Immanuel et al, 2009), carp (Sukumaran et al, 2016, European sturgeon (Kanani et al, 2014), Asian sea bass (Talpur et al, 2013), Rainbow trout (Nya and Austin, 2009;Shaluei et al, 2016) and grouper (Amar et al, 2018).…”