Abstract:
Fatty acid composition of five species of freshwater fish, three marine fish and seven brackish water fish were determined by GLC. Of the saturated fatty acids C SUB-16:0 and C SUB-18:0 are found to be the dominant ones with C SUB-16:0 accounting for 50-55% of the total saturated acids. Among the monounsaturated fatty acids C SUB-16:1 and C SUB-18:1 and polyunsaturated fatty acids C SUB-18:2 , C SUB-18:3 , C SUB-20:4 , C SUB-20:5 and C SUB-22:6 are found to be the important ones. Stinging cat fish contained the highest amount of C SUB-16:1 (16 . 52%). The level of arachidonic acid was fairly high in most of the fish lipids analyzed. The ratio C SUB-18:1 /C SUB-18:2 is higher for marine fish than for the freshwater fish and is fairly constant for each group. The fatty acid composition of brackish water fish do not show any definite pattern.
