Vol. 7, Issue 12, Part A (2025)

Tilapia lake virus (TiLV) is a novel virus that cause large scale mortalities in Tilapia farming and is considered as a threat to the global tilapia industry. In the present study, the antiviral activity of herbal medicines against TiLV were investigated in both invitro and invivo. A total of 6 herbal medicines including Tulasi (Ocimum sanctum), Naval (Syzygium cumini), Guava (Psidium guajava), Gooseberry (Phyllanthus acidus), Oregano (Coleus amboinicus), Papaya (Carica papaya) were used at different concentrations viz, 50, 100, 250, and 500 μl/ml of medium for screening the antiviral activities against TiLV. Among the 6 medicines, 2 medicines Gooseberry (Phyllanthus acidus), Oregano (Coleus amboinicus) inhibited the cytopathic effect caused by TiLV in SSN1 cell line. In this study, the concentration of herbal medicine at 500μl /ml of the medium showed better effect against TiLV in virus concentration of 10^6.73TCID₅₀ ml^-1 when compared to the control group. Our study has revealed that herbal medicines have potent antiviral effects in fish virus in cell culture. The finding suggests that herbal medicines have the potential as a therapeutic agent in the treatment of TiLV infection. This study was further performed using tilapia fingerlings against Tilapia Lake Virus (TiLV). The screened of two herbal medicines includes Gooseberry (Phyllanthus acidus), Oregano (Coleus amboinicus) against Tilapia Lake Virus in cell culture has antiviral effect. Out of these two herbal medicines, Gooseberry (Phyllanthus acidus), Oregano (Coleus amboinicus) has antiviral effect against TiLV on three different concentrations include 20ml, 40ml, 60ml/kg. There was recovery of tilapia fingerlings during this treatment. In this study, higher survival was occurred at 40ml dose and medium survival occurred at 60ml dose and least survival occurred at 20ml dose of medicine concentration. This was the first report of giving therapy against TiLV using herbal medicines.