Abstract

FATTY ACIDS AND AMINO ACIDS COMPOSITION IN SKIN EPIDERMAL MUCUS OF SELECTED FRESH WATER FISH MUGIL CEPHALUS

Balasubramanian. S* and Gunasekaran. G 

ABSTRACT

The epidermal mucus layer on the skin of fish consists of several antimicrobial agents that provide a first line of defense against invading pathogens from the surrounding environment. During the past few years, fish have been proven having good sources of fatty and amino acid constituents. Together with vitamins and minerals compositions, the mucus is providing potential sources in alleviating health diseases and disorders such as arthritis and inflammatory disorders. The present study was performed to identify the amino acid and fatty acid profile of epidermal mucus of Mugil cephalus. Among 18 amino acids, lysine, phenyl alanine, glysine, proline were found at maximum percentage, moderate amount of leucine, arginine, tyrosine, iso-leucine, threonine, valine, alanine were observed. Amino acidssuch as aspartic acid, tryptophan, serine, glutamic acid, histidine, asparagine, cystine were found in lesser quantity. The fatty acids content of mucus the monounsaturated fatty acid-oleic acid was found more. Other fatty acids are the poly-unsaturated fatty acids-moroctic acid, linolenic acid and alpha linolenic acid; the saturated fatty acids-palmitic acid and stearic acid also found. The amino acid and fatty acid profile from the epidermal mucus of Mugil cephalus contains most of the essential components required to play a possible role in its defense mechanism.

Keywords: Saturated (SFA) – monounsaturated (MUFA) - polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA)- Fatty acids (FAs).