Discrimination of Sebastes viviparus, Sebastes marinus and Sebastes mentella from Faroe Islands by chemometry of the fatty acid profile in heart and gill tissues and in the skull oil

Abstract

The composition of fatty acids in the tissue of heart, gill and skull oil of the three redfish species, Sebastes viviparus, Sebastes marinus and Sebastes mentella was determined by a chemometric method. The method consists of methanolysis of samples of the tissues and of the oils, gas chromatography of the resulting fatty acid methyl esters and multivariate statistical treatment, by principal component analysis, of the analytical data. Although the differences in fatty acid composition among the three tissues were the dominating features of the data, the three species had significantly different fatty acid profiles within each tissue, even though variation among the individuals was considerable. The fatty acid profiles appear to be species specific. The mutual relationship between S. marinus and S. mentella is closer than the relationship between either of them and S. viviparus.