the use of medicinal plants in the aquaculture industry and fish health

Medicinal plants are a group of plants that, in addition to their medical and pharmaceutical uses in humans, are also used in livestock, poultry, and aquatic animals. many plants contain compounds that play an effective role in improving, treating, or preventing diseases, and these compounds are called active ingredients. herbal medicines are used for various purposes in the aquaculture industry, including stimulating the immune system of fish and other farmed aquatic animals, acting as probiotics, treating infectious diseases, sedating and anesthetizing fish, using them to treat fish poisoning, healing superficial wounds in the bath therapy method with herbal immune stimulants, and as a coating to increase the shelf life of fishery products in aquatic animal processing. nowadays, plant-based immune stimulants have attracted more attention due to their advantages such as availability, lower risk to the environment and animals, and lower cost.1 also, plant compounds and products extracted from plants are added to the feed to improve the nutritional acceptability of foods and growth performance in farmed animals. active plant compounds (such as phenolic compounds and flavonoids) can have several effects on living organisms. these effects include improving feed efficiency and digestion, reducing nitrogen excretion, improving intestinal flora and animal health status.2 therefore, the use of immunostimulants in fish farming has become widespread in order to increase the immune system and non-specific immune responses and protect the body against diseases. for this reason, the use of immunostimulants is a suitable solution for controlling aquatic disease.