Extraction and Production of Omega-3 from UniMAP Puyu (Jade Perch) and Mackarel

Abstract

Extraction techniques to extract fish oil from various types of fish are numerous but not widely accepted because of the use of chemicals that may be harmful to health. In this study, fish oil is extracted using a technique of Microwave-Assisted Extraction, which uses only water. The optimum conditions required for the production of fish oil for extraction is carried out by examining three parameters such as microwave power (300-700W), extraction time (10-30 min) and amount of water used (70-190ml). Optimum conditions were determined after using design of experiments (DOE). The optimum condition obtained was 300 W for microwave power, 10 minutes extraction time and 190 milliliter amounts of water used. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to analyze the functional groups of fish oil. Two types of fish such as Jade Perch or UniMAP Puyu and Indian Mackerel were used. A standard omega-3 oil sample (Blackmores) purchased from pharmacy was also determined to confirm the presence of omega-3 oil in these fishes. Similar compounds were present in Jade Perch and Indian Mackerel as compared to the standard. Therefore, there were presence of omega-3 fish oil in the two types of fish. From this study, omega-3 in UniMAP Puyu fish was higher compared to Indian Mackerel fish. However, based on the FTIR analysis, besides the presence of omega-3, the two fishes also contain other functional groups such as alkanes, alkenes, aldehyde, ketones and many others. The yield of fish oil for the Jade Perch was low compared to Indian Mackerel which was 9% while Indian Mackerel was 10 %.