Cinnamomum zeylanicum essential oil as an anesthetic and its influence on Rhamdia quelen physiological parameters.
anesthesia; glucose; cinnamon essencial oil; silver catfish; cortisol
Advances in aquaculture have increasingly exposed fish to manipulations, which constitute stressors that can influence their performance. The use of anesthetics during the routine handling of these animals aims to minimize the stressful effects. As an alternative to the use of synthetic drugs, studies have shown the effectiveness in the use of essential oils (EOs) extracted from plants for sedation and anestesia of fish. The objetive of this work was to verify the ideal concentration of cinnamon essential oil (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) as an anesthetic for silver catfish (Rhamdia quelen) and to evaluate the stress responses of animals submitted to the anesthesia protocol. Initially, to determine the ideal concentration, 60 animals were used, with 245.75 ± 17.61 g of average weight, which were exposed to five treatments (140, 160, 180, 200 and 220 µL L-1) and a control group. No mortality was observed after exposure to cinnamon essential oil (CEO) in any of the different treatments. Subsequently, 30 silver catfish (200.71 ± 30.18 g) were used to verify the cortisol, lactate and glucose plasm levels after submission to the ideal concentration of CEO, which were divided into a control group (basal levels without exposure to CEO) and treatment (200 µL L-1 of CEO).