Quality and Fatty Acid Composition of Lipids from Head of Indian Mackerel (Rastreliger kanagurta) and Tigertooth Croaker (Otolithes ruber)

Abstract

Fish processing discards contain valuable nutrients
such as proteins, lipids and minerals. The lipid from
mackerel and croaker head extracted by alkali
solubilization was recovered and characterized for
quality parameters such as peroxide value (PV), free
fatty acid (FFA), thiobarbituric acid reactive substances
(TBARS) and fatty acid composition. PV, FFA
and TBARS values of lipids recovered from head of
mackerel was higher than that of croaker. Both
mackerel and croaker head lipids had higher
amount of saturated fatty acids (SFA) and
monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and lower
amount of polyunsatuarated fatty acids (PUFA)
compared to fatty acids from muscle of the same
fishes. Mackerel head lipids had higher PUFA
content (30.81%) than that of croaker (18.71%). The
SFA content was dominated by palmitic acid while
the MUFA content was dominated by palmitoleic
acid. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; C22: 6 ω3) and
Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; C 20: 5 ω3) were the
dominant PUFA in both the fish-head lipids. The
study revealed the fish head waste as a potential
source of ω-3 fatty acids which can be recovered by
alkali solubilization process.