Preliminary phytochemical screenings of marine alga ulva fasciata and its growth performance, biochemical composition on indian major carp cirrhinus mrigala fingerlings

To screening the preliminary phytochemical compounds of Ulva fasciata collected from Mandapam, south east coast, Tamil Nadu, India. U. fasciata, it was subjected to petroleum ether, chloroform, acetone and ethanol extractions. Totally 10 compounds were present in it, such as alkaloids, terpenoids, flavonoids, phenolics, saponins, cardiac glycosides, sterols, quinones and reducing sugar were present in the extract of U. fasciata. Among these, alkaloids, phenolics, quinones, and flavonoids were reducing sugar were luxuriant presence of U. fasciata extract. Basal diet prepared by replacing the fish meal with the U. fasciata at 1, 3 and 5% along with groundnut oilcake and soy bean meal (as protein source), wheat bran and sun flavor oil (as carbohydrate and lipid sources respectively), and tapioca flour and egg albumin as binding agents, and fed to Cirrhinus mrigala fingerlings for 60 days. The artificial feed formulated without incorporation of U. fasciata was served as control.  Among the three ratio of U. fasciata incorporated diets, 5% of feed fed C. mrigala fingerlings showed the best (P<0.05) survival and growth performance including weight gain (WG), muscle basic biochemical constituents (total protein, carbohydrate, lipid and ash). Moreover, 5% of U. fasciata incorporated diet can also be considered as a good nutritional supplement. Therefore, the present work recommends incorporation of U. fasciata as feed additive to achieve sustainable production of C. mrigala culture.