Studies on Lipid Profiles and Fatty Acid Composition of Roe from Rohu (Labeo rohita) and Murrel (Channa striatus)

The lipid profiles and fatty acid composition of roes from two common fresh water fish viz., rohu (Labeo rohita) and murrel (Channa striatus) have been studied. The dehydrated fish egg was ground to fine powder and extracted with chloroform/methanol (2:1, v/v) to recover the total lipid in 20.2 and 22.7% on dry weight basis. The fat free meal was found to contain 70 and 58% protein in rohu and murrel, respectively. The total lipids were separated into neutral lipids, glycolipids and phospholipids using silica gel column chromatography and found to be 43.8, 72.9% neutral lipids; 12.7, 9.4% glycolipids and 43.5, 17.7% phospholipids in rohu and murrel roes, respectively. The fatty acid compositions of all lipid classes were analysed by GC and GC-MS. Among the saturated fatty acids, hexadecanoic acid (16:0) was found to be 30.2 and 30.4% respectively in rohu and murrel total lipid. n-3 Fatty acids namely eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5, EPA) was observed to an extent of 1.5 and 0.6% and docosahexaenoic acid (22:6, DHA) to an extent of 11.8 and 6.1% respectively in rohu and murrel total lipids. Stearic acid (18:0) was also seen at 12.2 and 6% respectively in rohu and murrel lipids. The fatty acid composition was found to be almost similar in all the lipid classes. The study indicated that rohu and murrel fish egg lipids are good sources for polyunsaturated n-3 fatty acids.