N‐3 Fatty Acid Distribution of Commercial Fish Species Components

Abstract

AbstractFor application of n‐3 fatty acids, distribution of the fatty acid compositions of different parts of (head, tail, fins and skin = HTFS, liver, viscera and muscle tissue) five commercially important fish species from the Persian Gulf (Scomberomorus commersoni, Thunnus tonggol, Euthynnus affinis, Scomberomorus guttatus and Dussumieria acuta) as good sources of n‐3 PUFA were studied. The richest source of n‐3 were HTFS in S. guttatus and S. commersoni, liver in S.guttatus, total body of D.acuta, liver of E.affinis and T.tonggol, followed by viscera of E. affinis. The content of these fatty acids were the same in viscera of tonggol, liver of S.commersoni, and HTFS of E.affinis. Moreover, muscle of E.affinis and HTFS of T.tonggol and also muscle of S.guttatus and T.tonggol had the same n‐3 contents as the viscera of S.commersoni. So, it was concluded that HTFS and viscera (which are discarded as residues) are as useful as muscle and liver and can be a source of economically available n‐3 PUFA. Muscle had the lowest proportion of n‐3 in E.affinis, T.tonggol, and S.guttatus in comparison with other organs of these fish species. The highest n‐3:n‐6 ratio was observed in D. acuta. Finally, the cluster analysis showed that with respect to n‐3 and other PUFA contents, HTFS of S.commersoni and D.acuta with S.guttatus on the one hand, and HTFS of T.tonggol and E.affinis on the other hand were similar to each other. In addition, viscera of S.commersoni and S.guttatus were similar followed by T.tonggol and different from E.affinis and D.acuta. In the case of muscle, T.tonggol and S.guttatus had good similarity followed by E.affinis and had no significant similarity with S.commersoni and D.acuta. With regard to liver, the highest similarity was observed between T.tonggol and E.affinis followed by D.acuta and S.guttatus, while S.commersoni did not show similarity with the others.