Fatty acid saturation profiles and lipid contents of muscles from six popular culinary fish species sold in Umuahia, Nigeria

Abstract

The fatty acid saturation profiles and lipid contents of Scomberomorus maculatus (Mitchill, 1815), Micropogonias undulatus (Linnaeus 1766), Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus (Lacépède: 1803), Trichiurus japonicus (Temminck and Schlegel, 1844), Sardinella pilchardus (Walbaum, 1792), and Prochilodus lineatus (Valenciennes, 1836), popularly consumed in Umuahia, Nigeria were studied using standard procedures. The results show that C. nigrodigitatus had the highest crude lipid content (21.1 ± 1.1%) followed by S. pilchardus (20.4 ± 0.6%) and P. lineatus (20.1 ± 1.0%). S. maculatus and T. japonicus had the lowest crude lipid content (~13.3% each). Poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) were most abundant in S. maculatus (40.5 ± 0.4%) and T. japonicus (39.9 ± 0.5%), but least abundant in S. pilchardus and C. nigrodigitatus 6.0% each). Linolenic and palmitic acids were the most abundant PUFA and saturated fatty acid, respectively, in the studied fish species. In conclusion, S. maculatus and T. japonicus are the most nutri-medically desirable fishes of the six studied species.

Keywords: culinary fish, fatty acids, fish oil, lipids, saturation