Vol. 9, Issue 10, Part A (2025)

Giloy (Tinospora cordifolia) is known to be having amazing medicinal properties and has been used in indigenous systems of medicine in treating various human diseases, as well as to boost overall health. Giloy includes bioactive compounds like Alkaloids, Terpenoids, Flavonoids, Lignans, Sitosterol, Hydroquinone and Palmitic acid, which exhibit the overall health improvement effect. In the present study, the effect of dietary supplementation of T. cordifolia on the growth, survival and gut histology of Pangasianodon hypophthalmus was evaluated. Three test diets, T₁, T₂, T₃ and a Control (T₀) with 30% crude protein were formulated. 1% of Giloy (T₁), 1.5% of Giloy (T₂), 2.0% of Giloy (T₃) were incorporated in the test diets and diet without any Giloy, served as a control (T₀). In the present study, Weight Gain (216.32±0.69%), Specific Growth Rate (SGR) (1.28±0.03%) and Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER) (1.99±0.06) were significantly higher in T₃ when compared to the other treatments and the control (p<0.05). Significantly lower Food Conversion Ratio (FCR) was observed in T₃ (1.33±0.02) followed by other treatments and the Control (p<0.05). In the present study, dietary supplementation of Giloy improved the overall health of Striped catfish when compared to the control. Significantly higher survival percentage of 100% was observed in T₃, T₂ and T₁ when compared to the control (97.78±2.22) (p<0.05), in the present study. The treatment T₃ exhibited longer and wider villi when compared to the other treatments and the control. Also, lumen space was reduced in the treatment group fed with Giloy while Control showed higher lumen space. It is evident from the results of the present study that Giloy has overall health promoting effect when fed as a dietary supplement to Striped catfish at the rate of 2% in the feed for the best growth promoting effects.