Application of herbal plants in giant freshwater prawn: A review on its opportunities and limitation

Abstract

Macrobrachium rosenbergii can be found in northwest India's freshwater to Southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea, and Northern Australia. Nowadays, it becomes the most commercially crucial freshwater crustacean species cultured in many countries in the Asia region and beyond its natural distribution. On the other hand, feed additives are one of the feed ingredients that significantly improve the immune system, enhance the ingestion of feed, stress resistance, and reproduction. There are also many challenges in feed additives, i.e., high price, water-soluble, food safety, environmental issue, and the ban of nutritive antibiotics. Intensified research is devoted to exploiting natural products such as herbs in developing herbal feed additives to enhance cultured aquatic species' performance. Herbs are cheap, safe, effective, easily prepared, biodegradable resources, and a high potential for mass production. Herbs contain many beneficial ingredients that can help as a growth promoter and immunostimulants for animals. However, herbal plants' application to the animal must be in the right dosage to prevent toxicity. This review discusses the findings from different studies related to the in-vitro and in-vivo applications of herbs as a growth promoter, antimicrobial, and immunostimulant agent besides its opportunity and limitations in applying herbs focusing on M. rosenbergii culture.