PERILLA LEAVES CAN PROMOTE THE GROWTH AND SOME PHYSIOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS OF CHINESE GIANT SALAMANDER (ANDRIAS DAVIDIANUS)

In order to study the biological effect of adding perilla leaves on giant salamander, four groups of isonitrogen and isolipid diets with graded levels of perilla leaves were formulated: D0 (0), D1 (1%), D2 (2%) and D3 (3%). Giant salamander with an initial weight of (54.23±0.26) g were fed for 105d. The results showed that (1) The final body weight (FBW), weight gain rate (WGR), specific growth rate (SGR), and feed intake of giant salamander of group D2 were optimized, and the feed conversion ratio (FCR) was the lowest. (2) The muscle crude protein content of group D2 was the highest, which was significantly higher than that in the control group. The addition of perilla leaves had no significant effect on the crude fat content and the moisture content. (3) The addition of perilla leaves significantly improved gastrointestinal function with best activities of pepsin and H⁺-K⁺-ATPase in group D1, best Intestinal lipase, Na⁺-K⁺-ATPase activity and intestinal barrier function in group D2, and best activities of intestinal trypsin and amylase in group D3. (4) 2%, Perilla leaves significantly increased the total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) and total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD) activities in liver and intestine, and significantly reduced the plasma malondialdehyde (MDA) content. (5) The addition of perilla leaves improved immunity and liver function and significantly reduced the activities of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT) and alkaline phosphatase (AKP) in plasma. Immunoglobulin M (IgM) and nitric oxide (NO) in groups D2 and D3 were increased significantly. (6) The indexes of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) in group D2 were the best. The content of total cholesterol (TC) decreased with the increased perilla leaves, but the content of triglyceride (TG) did not change significantly. These results indicated that the addition of 2% perilla leaves has the best comprehensive effect on improving growth performance and gastrointestinal and liver function of giant salamander.