ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Phyto-qualitative Evaluation and Effects of Aqueous Extracted Erythrophleum suaveolens on sub-adult Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822)

Traditional means of capturing fish dwells on active components in plant which elicit harmful effects. Erythrophleum suaveolens is a typical example of such plant, which the study investigated for its stem-back (ASE) and leaf (ALE) aqueous extracts sub-lethal effects on Clarias gariepinus. Qualitative phytochemical screening of both extracts was carried out using 300 C. gariepinus sub-adults maintained in 10-fish sample per 1000 L circular fibre tanks during the research; the extracts were applied on every other day at 0.23 mg/ L ASE and 0.26 mg/ L ALE, which elicited LC₅₀ effects from the range finding tests, for 96 h compared with control set-up. Haematological (during the experiment) and histopathological (at the terminal of the experiment) parameters of the fish were analysed. Results showed significant variations in the treated fish haematological responses compared with the control. More impact was observed in ALE treated fish and linked to three active components (phenols, saponins and steroids) higher than in ASE, with no negative observations on the fish under the control treatments. Fish exposed to ALE showed severely eroded mucosa of the gill secondary lamellae while to ASE revealed signs of severe erosion of the entire gill mucosa. Liver of fish exposed to ALE showed a severe diffuse vacuolation of hepatocytes with several hepatocytes necrotic while to ASE revealed a severe diffuse vacuolation and necrotic hepatocyte with mild to moderate cellular infiltration. The study concluded that both extracts had sub-lethal toxicological effects on the exposed fish as they both elicited polycythemia.