Soylecithin

Four isoproteinous (35% crude protein) and isocaloric (410 kcal/100 g) practical diets were formulated: control basal feed, and basal feed containing: choline as choline chloride (SD Fine Chemicals Ltd, Mumbai) (0.1 g/kg); betaine as betaine hydrochloride (HIMEDIA, Mumbai, India) (0.5 g/kg); and lecithin (20 g/kg) as soylecithin (HIMEDIA, Mumbai, India), respectively. Choline and betaine were included at the expense of wheat flour, while lecithin (being lipid) was included at the expense of oil components in the diet. The composition of the basal diet is given in Table 1. Betaine and choline chloride were first dissolved in water and incorporated into a vitamin mineral premix, whereas lecithin was mixed in oil. For formulation of the pelleted diet, a manually prepared vitamin and mineral mixture along with ascorbyl phosphate (SRL Ltd., Mumbai, India) as the source of vitamin C was used. The dough was mixed properly and was pelleted, air dried and kept in a hot air oven at 60°C until dry and was subsequently stored at 4°C until required for feeding. The proximate composition of all the experimental diets and fish were analyzed as per the methods of AOAC [24] .

Sesamol was obtained as a free gift from Jubilant Life Sciences (Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India); Compritol 888 ATO® was a gift sample from Gattefosse, USA. Soy Lecithin (Hi Media, India); Tween 80 (S.D. Fine Chemicals, India) and CCl₄ (Merck) were also used in the study. All other chemicals and reagents were of analytical grade.