Nutritional Profile and Heavy Metal Content of Cultured Milkfish (Chanos chanos)

Abstract

Nutritional profile of fresh cultured milkfish (Chanos
chanos) revealed that the fish had good quantity of
protein, amino acids and poly-unsaturated fatty
acids. Essential amino acids formed 49.49% of the
total amino acids of milkfish meat. Leucine (8%),
lysine (7.3%), phenyl alanine (6.7%) and histidine
(6.1%) were the predominant essential amino acids.
Glutamic acid (18.2%) was the dominant nonessential
amino acid. The fish was rich in
unsaturated fatty acids (50.74%) of which mono
unsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and poly unsaturated
fatty acids (PUFA) constituted 34.47 and
16.27%, respectively. The predominant MUFA,
PUFA and saturated fatty acids were oleic acid C18:1
(26.1%), linoleic acid C18:2 (10.9%) and palmitic acid
C16:0 (29.82%). Heavy metals such as zinc, copper,
cadmium, cobalt, mercury and lead in different
body organs of cultured milkfish were within the
acceptable limit. The cultured milkfish can be
considered as important fish for human nutrition.