Fatty acid composition and total fat content of eight species of Mediterranean fish

The fatty acids and the total fat content of eight species of Mediterranean fish (Scomber japonicus, Boops boops, Mullus barbatus, Mullus surm uletus, Merluccius merluccius, Pagelius erythrinus, Pagrus pagrus, Sparus aurata — see Appendix 1) commonly consumed in this area were analysed. Six of the fishes were caught from the Kritiko pelagos, and the other two, the Sparus aurata and the Pagrus pagrus, were donated from the fishes cultured at the Institute of Marine Biology of Crete. The GC chromatography of the fatty acids showed the n-3 to range from 12.6 to 28.3% of the observed acids. The n-6/n-3 ratio of fatty acids was found to be 0.2–0.7, and the saturated fatty acids range from 28.0 to 33.2%. These results demonstrate that the eight species of fish studied from the Mediterranean sea are a good source of n-3 fatty acids.