The ameliorative potential of Vernonia amagdalina on the amino acid profile of Clarias gariepinus (Burchell 1822) exposed to diclofenac

Abstract

The inappropriate disposal of wastes causes an imbalance in natural aquatic ecosystems, affecting the marine environments, human health, and productive activities. This present study was designed to investigate the ameliorative effect of a medicinal plant, bitter leaf extract (BLE) on African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) fingerlings contaminated with diclofenac (DFC) using amino acid profile indices. The fingerlings were exposed to different concentrations of both BLE (6% body weight) and DCF (0.4mg/L) after a series of rangefinding tests. Liver tissues of the experimental fishes were collected on the 14^th and 28^th day and were analyzed for the assessment of amino acid profile. The result obtained on the amino acid profile of C. gariepinus showed a significant increase (p<0.05) in the treatments with BLE (1.06 ± 0.04 to 15.22 ± 0.01) and DCF (0.48 ± 0.04 to 14.79 ± 0.04) when compared to their control group. Glycine, alanine, serine, glutamate, arginine, tyrosine, leucine and histidine showed a significant increase (p<0.05) while cystine and methionine showed a significant decrease (p<0.05) when compared to their control groups (0.29 ± 0.00 to 13.77 ± 0.04). Threonine, valine, isoleucine, tryptophan, phenylalanine, aspartate, proline and lysine varied when compared to their control groups. The results indicate that the given concentration of DCF and V. amygdalina may have no adverse effect on the amino acid profile of C. gariepinus. However, this study has shown the ameliorative potential of V. amygdalin against the effect of DCF in C. gariepinus.