The development of aquaculture and the increasing demand for aquatic animals have led to an increase in the density of fish in ponds, resulting in increased stress on aquatic animals and an increase in the prevalence of diseases. Although many chemical drugs have been widely used to prevent and treat diseases. But these drugs cause many negative effects such as environmental pollution, harm to human health, resistance in bacterial species, and accumulation in aquatic body tissues. On the other hand, the use of chemicals and hormones due to side effects, accumulation in fish tissue, high cost, and difficult access to them, requires appropriate replacement with natural compounds such as plant extracts. Therefore, it seems necessary to replace less harmful substances, such as plant products. Natural plant products are very rich sources of compounds such as alkaloids, flavonoids, pigments, phenols, terpenoids, steroids and volatile oils, which have numerous properties such as anti-stress, antifungal, antimicrobial, improving growth performance, stimulating appetite, strengthening the immune system, strengthening or weakening reproductive function in aquatic animals. Therefore, it is better to manage diseases in aquaculture based on sustainable and environmentally friendly methods. In this article, the use of medicinal plants as available, cheap and environmentally friendly resources for enhancing health with emphasis on growth and safety in farmed fish is discussed. |
