Fatty acid composition of important aquatic animals in Southern Thailand

Aquatic animals are important to health-conscious consumers due to their high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) particularly omega-3 FA. This paper reports the fat contents and fatty acid profiles of 20 species of marine fish and 6 species of squid and shrimp (obtained in the fishing port of Pattani, Thailand), in addition to 7 types of Thai freshwater fish to create a fatty acid database. Among this, some of them have few reports. The aquatic animals in this study had 1.08–3.36% fat, and contained a high fraction of unsaturated fatty acids; some had a PUFA fraction >40% of total fatty acids. This was the case, among others, for Megalaspis cordyla (hardtail scad) and Selar crumenophthalmus (bigeye scad) in marine fish, Channa striata (snakehead fish) in freshwater fish, and Photololigo duvauceli (Indian squid). Of the 33 aquatic animals in this study, 27 had more PUFA-n3 (omega-3) than PUFA-n6 (omega-6); and 10 species had more than 0.5 g of docosahexanoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) per 100 g of meat. In particular, Euthynnus affinis (Eastern little tuna) had more than 1 g of DHA and EPA per 100 g of meat. For freshwater fish, Clarias batrachus (catfish) had PUFA 40.1% of total fatty acid, and 0.69 g of DHA and EPA per 100 g of meat, making it a potential source of PUFA-n3 in freshwater fish.