Impact of Caraway Essential Oil on Growth, Feed Utilization, and Flesh Quality of the Nile Tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus

Mehrim Et Al., Ahmed

doi:10.21608/ejabf.2024.341547

Impact of Caraway Essential Oil on Growth, Feed Utilization, and Flesh Quality of the Nile Tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Ahmed Mehrim et al.

10.21608/ejabf.2024.341547

Abstract

The use of medicinal plants or their essential oils (EOs) as feed additives for fish has become a more useful tool in the aquaculture sector than traditional chemicals. Therefore, the current study was conducted to evaluate the effects of the graded levels (0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5g/ kg diet) of caraway essential oil (CEO) on the growth performance, feed utilization, somatic indices, the chemical composition of the body and muscles, as well as histological and histometric parameters of dorsal muscles, alongside flesh quality parameters of the Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus for 90 days. The obtained findings revealed that fish fed with 0.1g CEO/ kg diet significantly increased growth performance, feed utilization, histological and histometric parameters of dorsal muscles, and flesh quality parameters, among other levels of CEO. The high level of CEO, up to 0.1g/ kg diet, hurts the above-tested criteria. Thus, it could be concluded that the judicious use of CEO for O. niloticus, especially at a level of 0.1g CEO/ kg diet, proved to be beneficial.

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