Fatty acid profile of two sciaenidae species; Pseudotolithus senegalensis (Valenciennes,1833) and Pseudotolithus typus (Bleeker,1863) from Lagos Lagoon, Nigeria

Abstract

This study was undertaken to quantify the fatty acids in the fillet of two commercially important species of croaker; Pseudotolithus senegalensis and Pseudotolithus typus. The fatty acid composition was determined using the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analytical method. The major saturated fatty acids were palmitic acid (14.04%), stearic acid (6.91%) and myristic acid (3.55%) for P. senegalensis and stearic acid (6.00%), myristic acid (3.39%) and Margaric acid (2.54%) for P. typus. The most abundant monounsaturated fatty acids was vaccenic acid and palmitoleic acid for both species with respective values of 14.81% and 9.99% for P. senegalensis and 12.10% and 23.98% for P. typus . The dominant polyunsaturated fatty acids for P. senegalensis were docohexaenoic acid (10.34%), eicosapentaenoic acid (5.00%) and arachidonic acid (4.57%) while it was docosahexaenoic acid (11.24%) and eicosapentaenoic acid (10.97%) for P. typus. They had minor quantity of furanoid fatty acids of 0.88% and 0.13% in P. senegalensis and P. typus respectively. The results showed that the fish species had high quality index of unsaturated fatty acids, however P. typus had a relatively higher ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fatty acid and omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid. The fish species are considered good sources of omega-3 fatty acids with beneficial effects for health of consumers.