Dietary inclusion of Withania somnifera and Asparagus racemosus induces growth, activities of digestive enzymes, and transcriptional modulation of MyoD, MyoG, Myf5, and MRF4 genes in fish, Channa punctatus

The present study explores growth potential of two medicinal herbs, Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha or ‘A') and Asparagus racemosus (Shatavari or ‘S') after their dietary inclusion in fish, Channa punctatus (13.5 $\pm$ 2 g; 11.5 $\pm$ 1 cm). Three hundred well-acclimatized fish were distributed into 10 groups- C (Control), S1 (1% S), S2 (2% S), S3 (3% S), A1 (1% A), A2 (2% A), A3 (3% A), AS1 (1% A and S), AS2 (2% A and S), and AS3 (3% A and S), each having 10 specimens. Fish were fed with these diets for 60 days. The study was performed in triplicate. Growth indices- weight gain (WG), specific growth rate percentage (SGR%), feed intake (FI), and condition factor (CF), after 30 and 60 days, were found significantly (p < 0.05) up-regulated in all the groups, except S1, when compared to the C. A significant (p < 0.05) increase in final body weight (FBW) was noticed in all the groups, except S1, after 60 days. Relative to the control group, activities of lipase and amylase in the gut tissue were elevated in all groups, at both sampling times, with the exception of lipase in S1 at 60 days, and amylase in S1 at day 30 and day 60 and S2 at day 60. The mRNA expression of myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs) was also found to be significantly (p < 0.05) up-regulated with the highest fold changes recorded in AS3 for myoD (3.93 ± 0.91); myoG (6.71 ± 0.30); myf5 (4.40 ± 0.33); MRF4 (4.94 ± 0.21) in comparison to the C.