Tilapia is a widely cultured species native to Africa; these fish are prolific breeders and constitute an economically important fish species supplying higher-quality protein. To meet the global food demand and achieve the UN’s Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDG), the aquaculture industry has conceived of productive solutions with the potential for adaptability, palatability, and profitability. Tilapia may play a vital role with respect to the possibility for sustainability in the nutrition and aquaculture sectors. India contributes to the promotion of aquacultural practices through a structural framework focused on agricultural, environmental, geographical, and socio-economic factors that provide opportunities for tilapia farming. Globally, the Indian aquaculture sector is currently the second largest in terms of aquacultural production but is moving toward different species that meet SDG and facilitate international marketing opportunities. The farming of aquacultural species with innovative technology constitutes an efficient use of resources. Productive research on feeding, disease management, construction, and layout helps overcome the challenges faced in aquaculture. These focused and sustained factors of the aquaculture industry offer a latent contribution to global food security. This review reports on the state of the art, the challenges regarding tilapia aquaculture in India, and the Indian government’s schemes, missions, subsidies, projects and funding related to tilapia production.

Recent studies on flavonoids forming complexes with macromolecules attract researchers due to their enhanced bioavailability as well as chemo-preventive efficacy. In this study, a flavonoid rutin (Ru) is non-covalently complexed with fucoidan (Fu) using the functional groups to obtain a therapeutic polymeric complex overcoming the limitations of bioavailability of rutin. The prepared novel rutin-fucoidan (Ru-Fu) complex is characterized for spectroscopic features, particle size and distribution analysis by DLS. It is shown that the complex displayed the nanostructural features that are different from that of the usual rutin-fucoidan mixture. The studies on drug release profiles at different pH (5.5, 6.8 and 7.4) show that the sustained release of compounds from complex occurs preferentially at the desired endosomal pH (5.5). Further, the chemopreventive potential of Ru-Fu complex is investigated against HeLa cells by cellular apoptotic assays and flow cytometric analysis. It showed that the complex is able to disrupt cell cycle regulation and has the ability to induce cellular apoptosis via nuclear fragmentation, ROS generation and mitochondrial potential loss. In vitro cell viability assay with Ru-Fu complex shows that the complex is biocompatible on normal cells. The hemolysis assay also reveals that the complex does not release hemoglobin from human red blood cells (RBCs). Thus, the study is envisaged to open up interests for developing such formulations against cervical cancer and other cancers.

Exploration of seaweeds to unravel their bioactive metabolites from the perspective of wider applications gained substantial importance. The present study was performed to investigate the total phenolic, flavonoid, tannin content, antioxidant activity and antibacterial potential of various solvent extracts of green seaweed Caulerpa racemosa. The methanolic extract showed higher phenolic (11.99 ± 0.48 mg gallic acid equivalents/g), tannin (18.59 ± 0.54 mg tannic acid equivalents/g) and flavonoid (33.17 ± 0.76 mg quercetin equivalents/g) content than other extracts. Antioxidant activity was determined by using 2,2-diphenylpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) assay with different concentrations of C. racemosa extracts. The methanolic extract showed higher scavenging potential in both the DPPH and ABTS activity with the inhibition value of 54.21 ± 1.39% and 76.62 ± 1.08%, respectively. Bioactive profiling was also identified by using Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) techniques. These studies revealed the presence of valuable bioactive compounds in C. racemosa extracts and these compounds might be responsible for antimicrobial, antioxidant, anticancer and anti-mutagenic properties. Major compounds identified in GC-MS were 3,7,11,15-Tetramethyl-2-hexadecen-1-ol, 3-hexadecene and Phthalic acid. In terms of antibacterial activity, C. racemosa has promising antibacterial potential against aquatic pathogens Aeromonas hydrophila, Aeromonas veronii and Aeromonas salmonicida. Further evaluation studies focusing aquatic related aspects would reveal the novel bioproperties and applications of C. racemosa.