Dietary Administration of Plant Extracts for Production of Monosex Tilapia: Searching A Suitable Alternative to Synthetic Steroids in Tilapia Culture

Özet

Study was aimed to evaluate the efficacy of Mucuna pruriens seeds and Asparagus racemosus roots for induction ofmasculinisation in tilapia. Plant materials were extracted with water, ethanol, methanol and successive methanol and mixedsex juveniles of Nile tilapia were subjected to dietary treatment with the extracts at the concentration of 0.1, 0.15 and 0.2 g/kgfeed. All treatments produced significantly higher (P<0.05) percentage of males than control. The highest percentage of males(93.79 ± 0.95) was obtained by treatment with methanol extract of M. pruriens seeds at the concentration of 0.2 g/kg feed. ForA. racemosus roots also, the highest percentage of males (92.24 ± 0.13) was obtained with methanol extract at theconcentration of 0.2 g/kg feed. Extracts with different solvents of both the plants showed presence of steroid/terpenoid,saponin and flavonoid. The highest percentage of phenol (658 mg of GAE/g dw) and flavonoid (11.72 mg of RE/g dw)content for M. pruriens was found in aqueous extract whereas for A. racemosus in successive (629 mg of GAE/g dw) andethanolic extracts (22.08 mg of RE/g dw) respectively. The antiradical activity is highest in methanolic extract of Mucuna(18.265%) and ethanolic extract of Asparagus (98.522%).