Fatty Acids Profiling, Lipid Quality Indices and Antioxidant Properties of Some Small Indigenous Fishes of Manipur, India under Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot Region

Aims: The aim of the study is to access the nutritional qualities viz. fatty acids profile, lipid quality indices and antioxidant properties of fish oil. The present study will provide the information on the fulfillment of various nutritional qualities of small fishes.

Study Design: The study was carried out during the month of October, 2017 to February, 2018 in fishery laboratory, department of Life Sciences, Manipur University, India.

Methodology: The extraction and analysis of fatty acids were carried out following the method of Metcalfe et al. 1966. The fatty acids are identified searching in the NIST database using mass spectral search program. For antioxidant property the extract was analyzed using DPPH assay following the method described by Koleva et al. 2002. Data were analyzed using SPSS package (Version 17.0).

Results: The most abundant fatty acid (SFA) is palmitic acid (C16:0) which is followed by Stearic acid (C18:0) and undecylic acid (C11:0). The concentration of C16:0 was in the ranged of 14.67% to 27.96% which was highest in H. myitkyinae and lowest in G. giuris. Among the monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) Oleic acid (C18:1n9) was the most abundant fatty acid which is followed by Vaccenic acid (C18:1n11) and heptadecanoic acid (C17:1) respectively. Docosahexanoic acid (DHA) and Ecosapentanoic acid (EPA) are the predominant n3 fatty acids in all the fish studied. The index of atherogenicity (AI), index of thrombogenicity (TI), Hypocholesterolemic/ Hypercholesterolemic (HH) fatty acid ratio and Flesh lipid quality (FLQ) was in the ranged of 0.79% to 1.10%, 0.13% to 0.67%, 0.53%- 2.53% and 1.90% to 7.72% respectively. The highest antioxidant property was found in P. chola (8.69 µg/ml) and the lowest was observed T. burmanicus (46.83 µg/ml).

Conclusion: From the above analysis Small indigenous freshwater fishes (SIFFs) contained good lipid which provide enormous amount of PUFA and MUFA especially DHA and EPA contribute to various health related benefit. The scavenging activities of antioxidant properties of the SIFFs are also found to be considerable. Thus it can be indicates that these small fishes have good nutritional quality and can bring many benefits to human health.