EVALUATION OF POMEGRANATE PEEL MEAL AS FEED SUPPLEMENT IN THE DIETS FOR MONO-SEX NILE TILAPIA, OREOCHROMIS NILOTICUS FRIES

Diet supplemented with pomegranate peel (3, 6, and 9 g/kg diet) as identified as POM3, POM6 and POM9 were fed to Nile Tilapia fries for 84 days to evaluate the nutritional values, antioxidant activity, histology of liver and intestine and growth of mono-sex Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fries. No significant changes (P ≥ 0.05) in the final weight, weight gain, and specific growth rate (SGR) were seen in all treatments. Meanwhile, a decreasing trend was detected in feed intake by increasing the pomegranate peel inclusion. When compared to the other groups, POM9 diet had the worst (2.02) (P ≤ 0.05) feed conversion ratio (FCR value). While POM3 diet had the best FCR (1.63) without significant differences (P ≥ 0.05) from the other groups except POM9. The survival rates did not differ significantly (P ≥ 0.05) in all treatments but increased pomegranate peel resulted in a modest rise. Pomegranate peel powder contains significant phenolic acid concentrations, resulted a high DPPH scavenging activity (81.72). Pyrogallol was the first abundant phenolic acid (927.45 mg/100gm powder). Increased pomegranate peel consumption also resulted in significant increases (P ≤ 0.05) in superoxide dismutase (SOD), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), catalase (CAT), besides glutathione peroxidase (GSH). Additional pomegranate peel dosage led to a considerable decreasing trend (P ≥ 0.05) in malondealdihye (MDA) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP). Compared with the control group, fish fed diet supplemented with pomegranate peel had shown normal appearance of liver and intestine Therefore, Pomegranate peel supplementation may enhance growth performance as well as the health of mono- sex Nile tilapia fries.