Fatty acids in the inedible parts of jade perch Scortum barcoo

Abstract

The study aimed to quantify fatty acids in the edible body parts (skin, dorsal muscle, and belly muscle) and inedible body parts (head, bone, and visceral fat) of the jade perch, Scortum barcoo, for nutraceutical purposes. Results showed that the head and skin contained the significantly highest levels of omega-3 at 44.96 +/- 3.64 mg FA/g tissue and 40.51 +/- 2.07 mg FA/g tissue. Comparatively, bone and skin contained the highest level of omega-6 at 24.02 +/- 5.53 mg FA/g tissue and 23.32 +/- 5.65 mg FA/g tissue. The head was found to contain the highest level of (polyunsaturated )fatty acids at 66.6 +/- 3.94 mg FA/g tissue, whereas bone contained the highest level of monounsaturated fatty acids at 55.54 +/- 10.70 mg FA/g tissue. The highest saturated fatty acid level was found in visceral fat at 51.69 +/- 6.51 mg FA/g tissue. Docosahexaenoic acid was found to be the highest among omega-3 composition at 91.5 +/- 0.56 mg FA/g tissue, followed by eicosapentaenoic acid at 54.0 +/- 0.18 mg FA/g tissue in both edible and inedible body parts. Examination confirms that jade perch is a fatty fish containing high amounts of fatty acids even in the inedible parts, which indicates good potential to be used for animal feed application.