Malaysia Snakehead Channa Striatus and Micropeltes: Physico-chemical Properties of Fillet Fish Oil and Water-soluble Extract

Abstract

Channa species is a local fish species in Malaysia. Channa striatus (Haruan) has been traditionally used for wound healing and reducing pain. This study was carried out to determine the availability of essential fatty acid (arachidonic acid) and other physico-chemical properties in the aqueous extract which has been proven to induce wound healing mechanism. Two Channa species were used in this study, which were Channa striatus (Haruan) and Channa micropeltes (Toman). Each sample was trimmed well to obtain the maximum fish fillet and extracted by using two different extraction methods. They were: 1) aqueous extraction and 2) Soxhlet extraction to procure the fish oil. The aqueous extract was characterised for its physico-chemical properties such as pH, moisture content, rheological properties (n = 3), amino acid composition and fatty acid determination (arachidonic acid) (n = 2) whilst fish oil was examined in terms of its colour, density, specific gravity, acid value (AV), free fatty acid (FFA) value, peroxide value (PV) (n = 3) and fatty acid composition (n = 2). Based on this study, Toman essence was found to be more neutral and had higher moisture content than Haruan essence (p 0.05). Both water extract ofC. striatus and C. Both Haruan and Toman fish oils showed a relatively similar fatty acid profile and the arachidonic acid in a very low concentration. The physico-chemical properties of two Malaysia Channa species extracts revealed its potent ingredients (especially arachidonic acid) to induced wound healing process despite of its low concentration in the extracts. micropeltes were found to contain the essential amino acid, glycine and fatty acid (arachidonic acid) which aid in the process of wound healing despite their low concentration (p > 0.05). On the other hand, the highest yield of extracted fish oil (%, w/w) was obtained frommicropeltes species, 9.51 ± 1.20 % (p 0.05), specific gravity - 0.93 ± 0.10, 0.91 ± 0.03 (p > 0.05), AV - 21.78 ± 2.30 mg KOH/g, 5.55 ± 1.64 mg KOH/g (p 0.05).