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Bromelain enhances digestibility of Spirulina-based fish feed

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Abstract

Microalgae like Spirulina (Arthrospira platensis) are protein rich and can be alternative protein sources to fishmeal and soybean meal in fish feed formulation. The present study aims to improve the protein bioavailability of Spirulina by cost-effective protein extraction followed by protease supplementation in fish feed, using in vitro studies. Different extraction procedures such as microwave-assisted, high pressure, and temperature-mediated extraction, boiling and an isoelectric precipitation were employed to study the protein yield from Spirulina powder, and this was compared with the conventional soybean meal and fishmeal conditioning during feed manufacture. Bromelain is a potent protease that has not been widely used as a feed additive with Spirulina. To study the comparative efficiency of bromelain and other proteases like papain and trypsin on Spirulina and conventional feed substrates, a protease assay was performed at different temperatures and enzyme concentrations. The digestibility of these substrates was also studied in vitro, using gut extracts from the fingerlings of Mozambique tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus). Unlike an in vivo feeding trial, a novel method was used to study the effect of protease supplementation on the inherent digestibility of the gut with an in vitro method. Bromelain showed the highest activity on all the substrates at both the temperatures. Bromelain supplementation improved the in vitro digestibility of the Spirulina that were subjected to protein extraction, more than the un-extracted one. The results of the present in vitro study suggest that Spirulina could serve as an alternative protein source, and bromelain-based supplementation could improve the digestibility of Spirulina-based fish diets.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Mr. C Mugundhan of SpikingTM products (2M Biotech), Ramanathapuram, Tamilnadu, India, for providing the Spirulina powder. We thank all the staff of the Department of Life Sciences, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore Central Campus, Bengaluru, Karnataka, for their help and all the facilities to carry out this research. We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on improving the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Life Sciences, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore Central Campus, Hosur Road, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560029, India

    Samskrathi A. Sharma, Siddharthan Surveswaran & Krishnakumar Velayudhannair

  2. Department of Chemistry, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore Central Campus, Hosur Road, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560029, India

    James Arulraj

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  1. Samskrathi A. Sharma
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  4. Krishnakumar Velayudhannair
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Contributions

SAS and SS conceived the project. SAS designed and performed the experiments, and analyzed the data. SS, JA, and KV helped with experimental design and troubleshooting. SAS and KV performed the statistical analysis. SAS wrote the paper, and all authors commented and contributed to the previous versions. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Krishnakumar Velayudhannair.

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Sharma, S.A., Surveswaran, S., Arulraj, J. et al. Bromelain enhances digestibility of Spirulina-based fish feed. J Appl Phycol 33, 967–977 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-020-02337-4

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